Memories of the Half Breed
by unshippedcorpse
Summary: What if Balto grew up with wolves instead of humans and dogs? well that's what this is about, Cael is a wolf-dog who was raised in a wolf pack and will end up crossing paths with Balto, rated T for language, violence, animal cruelty, bloody messes, and POV of homicidaly insane R&R Also i want to give a big thanks to PianoAngelOfSnow for making the cover picture for me!
1. Chapter 1

(OK well this is my attempt at a prologue kinda thing though idk if you can call it a prologue since its actually takes place at the end)

slowly i wake up, i'm laying in the snow, i can smell blood and alot of it, i can't remember anything for a few seconds, then it all floods back, and as I lay in the snow I can't help but hear every word he said before we fought,

_"It's odd isn't it? when one is face with their own mortality how much they look back unto their past"_

I hate it, i hate every word of it but i can't stop it from coming back to me like a speeding train

_"and see how much they regret of their pitiful exuse of a life!"_

My mind commands my paw to cover my ears but it seems to refuse i look at it and see why;

_"and if you had any sense at all you would ask me- no you would beg me to kill you were you stand!"_

its a bloody mess, the entire leg is so gnarled that i'm shocked its still attached, in several places the bone is clearly visable, then i notice something else

_"all your life you have been nothing more then a burden, un-wanted and un-needed!"_

I'm laying in a pool of my own blood, the white snow has turned a dark red as the blood that i'm sure once flowed now only trickled, i know death will soon be upon me

_"becasue of you our alphas are dead! because of you we all might just perish!"_

I look up and see a cliff a little less then a hundred feet above and know thats were i fell from, i then look a few feet to my side and see his lifeless body, almost as badly mangled as mine

_"but not before I fight you one last time, this time we fight to the death! tonight i do this world a favor and rid it of you! you worthless cur!"_

I might live if i were to get help quickly but i know that wont happen, i made damn sure of that much, before i came here i burned every bridge i'd ever built, everyone who would of helped me was either dead or thought i'd killed the others, but i suppose that was my plan i didn't want them to come, coming for anyone would of ment death, but i had also ended it.

I cough and suddenly all the pain hits, and it hits hard. I barely remain consious. its becomeing to much to bare i know i have to do something to get my mind off this pain before i go insaine, if i'm going to die i atleast want to do it with a clear mind, also being happy might help, i guess the hard part will be finding a happy memory.

Mostly all i can think is how i was tortured and tormented, how i was torn from my love more times then i can count, how i was forced from every home i've ever known, how they killed-

"No!" i tell myself, i have to stay calm, so i'll just start at the begining

A/N well thats it for this part, and if it seems a little mixed up or choppy thats on purpose, he is going into shock and slightly insane  
next time I update I plan on posting a bulk of a few chapters but I also need a little help,

I need a name for this story, its about Balto and another wolf-dog named Caelum (pronounced Kale-um, it means sky or heavens in Latin) while you all know the story of Balto (I hope) Cael (which is what you will find Caelum prefers to be called) was raised by wolves, this is mostly going to show how different Balto could have been if he had grew up with wolves so I will put them in semi similar situations,

I also need help with names for some characters, if you give me a name that I use I'll mention your name along with a thanks.

Characters I need names for: a few filler wolves - a few elder wolves - the Alpha of the shadow Vally clan that Cael is from also the Alpha is Cael's father, he is larger then the average wolf he is mostly black with a white underside – at least 4 dogs in Nome, similar to steel kaltag Niki and Star – the antagonist, he is a Large gray wolf with a black head, he is missing half an ear and part of his tail – and finally I need a name for a husky pup that has a light blueish gray top and is white on his underside, muzzle around his eyes muzzle and all four paws

But besides all of this i would love to hear what you think, oh and the rest of the story will not be first person that was just for this part


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

-A/N Special thanks to Mojotheomegawolf for giving names a few names (I'll include a * next the the ones he gave me) and for giving me a few name ideas when I scrambled a few letters around on his list! You really helped a lot thank you!-

Silver was still too shocked by what she had witnessed to feel anything but the breath burning in her lungs and her paws mercilessly beating the earth as she ran across the rough terrain, it was mid winter and most all the leaves had long since fallen. The short shrubs harden sticks lashed at her pure silver fur which had helped produce her name.

She was a normal sized silver-gray husky, she was running because of what she had witnessed when she was traveling with her humans to a near by town called white mountain, when a larger group of odd men, who wore animal skins to protect them from the cold and had darker tanned skin that almost looked like leather, attacked them killed a few of the dogs that resisted and all of the humans, Silver had managed to run to a tree line and looked back long enough to see the men start to raid the sleds after the they had killed all of them. A few other dogs had made it into the woods with her but the men who wore the fur had their own dogs and released them into the forest to hunt down the few that had ran. She had only stayed long enough to see a dog she had grown up with, Shade a gray and brown lab, get pounced on and have his throat torn out.

She wouldn't let herself feel anything, she knew if she stopped for even a moment she would start to cry, that would lead to her being killed like the others and she couldn't let that happen, but she knew she had to stop soon, it had happened yesterday night and it was growing dark again, billowing clouds of gray roared across the sky and mocked her with their speed and threatening her with crushing snow. Deciding that she hadn't heard the other dogs since just an hour or two after she started running she stopped in a clearing for a rest. Just as she predicted a few seconds after her first rest in almost 24 hours the situation hit her

everyone she had ever known and cared about had been killed, she was now alone in land she did not know surrounded by even more unknowns. Tears burned her eyes and joined her hot breath in attempts to melt the snow in front of her face. She couldn't stop crying or keep moving for awhile, in that time small white crystals of snow had started to fall and add to the layer of snow all around her. She also knew she had no food, no shelter and had never hunted before in her life.

"Great, how can this get any worse?" she asked herself aloud  
the answer came in the forum of something growling from behind, she turned and saw a shadowy figure pounce at her from behind with its jaws open ready to take her life. She was now fighter and was to worn out to run, she thought to herself "this is it" and closed her eyes. Ready to join her friends in the afterlife.

-A/N just trying to set it all up for now, i promise they'll get longer as i go on already working on chapter 3 should be up by tomorrow-


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

-A/N just wanted to say thanks to kodiwolf321 for the new name! Hope whoever reads enjoys it!-

"Great, how can this get any worse?" she asked herself aloud  
the answer came in the forum of something growling from behind, she turned and saw a shadowy figure pounce at her from behind with its jaws open ready to take her life. She was now fighter and was to worn out to run, she thought to herself "this is it" and closed her eyes. Ready to join her friends in the afterlife.

She waited for the end, but instead heard another creature growl and the loud thumb of something heavy hitting the forest floor. Silver opened her eyes and saw that the two creatures were indeed wolves, the first smaller one was a light brown and looked scared and confused, the other wolf that was now standing on top of the would be predator was a larger black wolf with a gray underside, that was growling at the under him when he spoke

"we do not pounce on guests in out land, _Shiv*_." he practically spat the name as if he loathed it, but brown wolf apparently Shiv "yes Marrok, sorry sir!" after another moment Marrok stepped off the seemingly terrified Shiv, the moment he did he bolted off into the bushes, Marrok couldn't help but chuckle at how the older wolf was so scared of him, but now for the problem at hand.

Marrok turned to look at Silver with his piercing glare that sent most wolves from his pack running for cover, but he almost faltered when he looked back, he saw what he thought was one of the most beautiful wolves he had ever seen in his life, but she was also coiled up and ready to either pounce or run which he couldn't tell.

Deciding to try and throw her off he acted completely inattentive to the situation by sitting back and shaking some snow off his head, and taking the time to stop and pop his neck joints by turning it this way and that.

Silver just sat there, coiled up and ready to run the first chance she got, she was trying not to show it but she was completely terrified of the large black and gray wolf in front of her. She was thrown off a bit when he sat back to shake off some snow and crack his neck. As soon as he closed his eyes to continue to crack his neck she sprang forward with all her might.

Marrok assuming an attack got into a defensive position but was left standing there like an idiot when Silver ran right past him and took off into the woods, he barely missed a beat in turning around and giving chase to her.

She may have had a decent head start but the large wolf ran everyday of his life to chase prey and she had been running for a full day, but she still darted quickly to the left and right zipping past and around trees but charging straight through bushes and leaping over logs and rocks. She couldn't help but stumble slightly as she ran through the rocky creek of a small river bank, in that time she turned to see him almost on top of her and ready to pounce. Thinking fast Silver hopped into the river causing Marrok to pounce onto a defenseless pile of mud, thus making him look a fool twice in a few minutes, a feat most cannot claim to make even once in their life time.

Silver didn't even stop to shake the water off her fur when she had finally swum across the half frozen river, only a mere 12 feet across but as the water was below freezing at that point it took a lot out of her, Marrok took the time to hop across on some ice patches and came to the bank almost next to her. She only got a few more feet before he jumped on her and pushed her to the ground.

Silver only struggled for a moment before she knew it was pointless. She was caked in thick mud drenched in freezing water and worn from all the running. Marrok only had a bit of mud on his upper neck and chest, he was barely panting from the chase as he leaned down next to her ear and whispered "if you were a wolf from my pack I'd drag you back to that river and hold your head under the ice until you lost cosiness for doing what you did!"

he lightly hopped off of her before continuing "but I don't feel like carrying you back so get up and get don't even try to run or cold water will be the least of your problems." Silver slowly got up and looked around herself, somehow Shiv and about 5 other wolves of varying sizes and colors and surrounded her and Marrok without her even taking notice.

They started walking in a rhombus formation with Silver in the middle, Shiv in the back and Marrok in front. For about 15 minutes the walked In silence before Silver felt inclined to ask a few questions "do you mind if we stop for a second? I cut my ankle on the rocks when I stumbled." Marrok didn't even bother to turn around "we can tend to that and any other wounds you may have when we get back" "oh common it will only take a minute and its really bothering me now" "you wouldn't have injured it in the first place if you hadn't tried to run" he growled leaving no room for discussion.

"well were is 'back'?" Silver asked after a few more minutes of walking Marrok let out a sigh before replying "our home, with the rest of our clan" now it was her turn to sigh and mumble to herself "oh great, more of you damn rude _wolves_." "what was that?" Marrok asked stopping the group for a second "nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about" she snapped as she walked into his back side.  
With a grunt he started walking again, after another fifteen minutes or so they reached a mountainous rock wall with under growth surrounding the base. One at a time the first 3 wolves squeezed through the small opening in the rock hidden under the roots of a large tree. Then one of the wolves pushed Silver forward roughly, she climbed through the hole a little easier then most of the wolves given her small size after another minute or so of walking in single file through the cramped tunnel it slowly started to open up, when the wolves in front of her disappeared into the light at the end of the tunnel she knew they had reached the entrance. She stepped out and was surprised by the sight that met her.

They were in a large valley surrounded by steep cliffs that would be extremely difficult to walk up, and many caves around the area, three of which stood out the most. They were toward the back, the only easy way to them was with two connected sloping paths that made a sharp V. at the top was a flat area that looked almost like a platform used to address large groups from, and one large cave flanked on either side by a smaller cave. Out of the smaller cave to the left came a group of about 10 more wolves, that slowly started walking toward them. Marrok paying them no heed turned to Silver with a grin "I welcome you to the humble home of the 'Shadow Valley clan, you will be sta-"

"MARROK! You were to bring back food! Not more mouths to feed!" "well hello to you to mother" was all he growled in a response. "Well? Are you going to explain?" "why! I thought you'd never ask! I did in fact bring back food" he replied nodding to the 5 wolves who all carried large chunks of meat, a larger wolf even had a small doe slung over his back that he held partially in his mouth to prevent it from falling "and as for her, Shiv tried to pounce on her in the woods, after making our presence known I couldn't just leave her there but I couldn't kill her either so i-" "and just why couldn't you kill her?" Silver couldn't help but flinch at her words and how blunt she was being while talking about her life as if it was nothing more then used toy to be tossed away by a careless child "Would you let me finish one damned sentence! I couldn't leave her nor kill her for if she was part of another clan they could very well find our home, something my father died to protect and not something I'm about to change on a whim! As for not killing her again if she is with another clan killing her could provoke a war between us!"

"so your 'grand plan' for keeping our home hidden was to take her right to it? And now that she is her what do you plan to do? Keep her forever hoping the possible other clan wont come looking for her?" "_my_ _plan_ mother is to keep her here for a couple of weeks to see if she is from another clan." "and what if I don't agree with this little plan?" her last question was more of a challenge that sent fire into Marrok's eyes

"Frankly _mother_ I don't give a flying fuck what you think because this is _my_ clan do you understand me? _I'm _the fucking alpha! Not you! Not after the way your _coward_ when Matu died!" he spat almost every word and curled his upper lip.

The older female looked angry but also deeply hurt by his words. "excuse me for grieving the death of my mate" with that she left silent tears flowing down her cheeks, the 9 wolves that had come with her followed with out saying a word.

-A/N see? I told you i'd make them longer, please rate and review! Also wouldn't mind a few names, still need one for a major antagonist (the bad guy for those who don't know) oh and remember the * meant that Shiv was given to me/inspired by mojotheomegawolf!-


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

-A/N sorry if you don't like swearing but Marrok isn't a happy camper, but without further delay I present chapter 4, enjoy! And if you do enjoy rate and review, though I'd prefer a review-

Marrok knew he was probably being to hard on her, but at this point he didn't care. She had gone to far this time, in truth she was suppose to be the alpha but after his father was killed by hunting dogs after he led them far from their home she was simply crushed, she couldn't form a full sentence for weeks and the clan needed a leader.

So Marrok stepped forward, he knew he was a bit young to be alpha being only a year and a half old but he soon earned the respect of most if not all the wolves in the clan. He had all the traits of an alpha as well, he was one of the best fighters and hunters, he was quite clever and was exceedingly well at getting even the most stubborn of wolves to listen to him.

After he was alpha for about a month she finally snapped out of it, knowing she couldn't expect to be alpha at that point she joined the elders. While most of the clan just ignored what had happened to her Marrok refused to forgive her for it. He felt as though his own mother had abandoned not only him but the entire clan in their time of need.

"So, who was that?" Silver asked, looking after the brown wolf with a rusty almost red looking underside as she walked away. This earned her wide eyed looks from all the wolves standing around her, as Marrok still looked ready to kill someone. "that, was my mother," he started turning his head to glance at her and the rest of the group, now all the wolves eyes seemed even wider that he was not only calm but answering her question instead of threatening her life "and just what the hell are all of you doing standing around? Don't you have jobs to do?" they all stuttered for moment before running as fast as they could to store the food and get out of the way until they were needed again

Silver didn't press the question any more deciding that it was none of her business anyway, and suddenly took an interest in her paws as she waited for Marrok to tell her what to do next. He started to really look at the beautiful silver canine, he was not gawking but trying to figure something out; on the way here she had said something that made him wounder what exactly she was

_"oh great, more of you damn rude wolves."_

The way she had said wolves made him realize that she may not be one at all, and while looking at her more closely he began to think she looked different. Never having seen a dog he assumed that she might be some kind of coyote.

"follow me" he said suddenly, then walked toward the three larger caves at the back, on the way there she looked around the secluded valley, there were a few scattered trees, most of which had fur covered forms laying around them, going along the walls was what looked like a system of caves and tunnels and a elevated path that went around the entire place and rose above the entrance that she had come from. All in all she counted about 20 wolves around the area but given all the caves there could be many many more.

When they arrived at the 3 caves Marrok looked back to make sure she was still following as he entered the largest one in the middle. Once inside she noted that it had 4 'rooms' all connected to the first one. Marrok stopped in the middle of the first room and sat on his haunches facing her;

"this is my den, you will be staying here so I can keep a closer eye on you, I don't really care were you sleep just don't try to run off in the night, we have guards at every time of night and day. You are not to leave this cave unless I give you permission and when I do you will have at least two of my men accompany you, and I'll bring you your meals understood?"

"um I can't go anywhere and I'm basically a prisoner got it." "good enough for me." he groaned as he stretched and went into the back room probably to sleep. Silver looked around, finally deciding on the room to the right of the entrance she went in and curled up against the back wall and succumb to her exhaustion.

-A/N hope you liked it, I should have chapter 5 finished and uploaded very shortly-


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

-A/N It may be a bit until I upload chapter 6, I'm going to ask a beta reader to review this story to see if they can tell me somethings I can improve on before I get to far into this story-

Silver awoke with a start and could feel hot tears rolling down her cheeks, all through her sleep she had been tormented by the memories of her friends and their deaths. Forgetting were she was she just let it out and started to sob.

Marrok had been up for over an hour when he decided to check on the girl, he also realized he didn't know her name, and planned to ask her that along with more when she awoke. He found her in the room to the right of the entrance and was a little puzzled by what he saw, she was completely fitful in her sleep tossing this way and that, tears trickled down her fur and she kept muttering to herself, by the sound of it mostly names.  
Not really sure what to do at this point Marrok just left her to sleep for a little longer. He strolled out of his den, and just to the left in the next cave, it was just a little smaller then his own but this one acted as a storage for food and was the clan healers den. He grabbed enough meat for both of them from the oddly cold part of the cave and started back. On his way out he almost ran right into Lundy*, "hey! Slow down there Marrow!"  
Lundy said, using the nickname she had given him a long time ago.

Marrok Lundy and Shazu had been best friends since pup hood, though now Shazu always seemed distant after his mate was killed by a bear Lundy and Marrok were able to keep close by the fact that they lived right next to each other since Lundy was the clan healer. She was also the only member of the clan that could tease him like she does. "Just grabbing something to eat loony" is what he tried to say, but with two chunks of meat in his mouth it sounded more like "jus garben some ting ta ea oony"

Lundy shook her head saying "tsk tsk, weren't you ever taught not to speak with your mouth full?" Marrok set the meat down and repeated himself. Lundy then noticed that he had two chunks of meat instead of just one, she then started giggling "finally found a special someone to bring meat to Marrow?" she asked nodding at the extra meat. "Sure if you count a captive we found while hunting yesterday" "well isn't that just the picture of romance, I guess I'll go let you feed em then!" she said as she stepped out of his way.

Marrok nodded, grabbed his meat and went back to his den, as soon as he got in he heard sobbing coming from the room he had left her in. Marrok completely lost as to what was going on walked over and poked his head in.

Silver had probably been at it for almost about half and hour now and knew she had to stop before she made herself sick or something. But when ever she felt she had gotten it out of her system she just started back at it again and was getting increasingly frustrated about it. She didn't even notice the large black and gray wolf enter and walk up to her. "um, are you OK?" he asked dumbly, not sure what else to do. Silver nearly jumped at his words though, and looked at him silently remembering were she was and what had happened.

"I-I'm fine." she managed after a moment, he just cocked his head at her knowing that she was not fine but decided he would ask her later when she had calmed down a little. "well I brought you some food he said nodding to the rabbit he set down next to her, "after you done eating though I need to ask you a few things." Silver nodded but was unsure about the meal, having grown up with humans she had never eaten raw meat before, much less raw meat with fur still on it.

While she tried time and again to eat all she had managed to do was pull a few clumps of fur off it with her teeth, Marrok mean while at already finished his and was left with nothing but a few clumps of fur and some bones that he was now gnawing on. He looked up at her when he heard her gagging on some of the fur she had tried to swallow. Seeing that the rabbit was barely touched he asked "something wrong with it?" "um no, I mean I don't think so, I haven't, well you see, I've never eaten anything like this before" she said looking away not sure what he would think of something like that.

"what do you mean? What do you normally eat?" "well, dry food and sometimes wet food for dinner." now Marrok was really confused. "Correct me if I'm wrong" he started walking over and poking at the rabbit "but this feels quite dry to me" "oh very funny" she huffed trying to think how best to eat her meal. "what?" "what do you mean what? Your sitting there making fun of me for never having eaten anything like this before." "no I'm being honest here, as far as I know meat is meat regardless if its wet or not."

Silver started to open her mouth when she realized she was talking to a wolf, one that had never had any interactions with a human and had no idea what dog food was like. "oh I'm sorry, I forgot, you've never had dog food-" "wait a second, so, you are a dog?" Marrok asked, suddenly sounding almost worried about it. "um you couldn't tell?" "no! How should I have known? I've never met a dog! Wolves are taught as pups to avoid dogs at all costs! Dogs mean humans and humans mean death!" Marrok was really starting to panic now, if he had brought a dog here then her humans couldn't be far off

"how far away are they?" "are who?" "the humans how far off are they how much time do we have before they come here looking for you and probably kill all of us when they find us!" Silver recoiled at this and started to tear up again at the mention of her humans "my humans wont be coming here trust me" "how do you know?" he hissed starting to get frustrated "because their all dead" she said flatly, tears flowing freely again.

Marrok once again didn't know what to do. He know dogs were close with their humans but couldn't bring himself to be mournful for the death of one regardless. So he did the only thing he could think of doing "Ripping it off helps" "w-what?" she chocked out "The fur, we teach pups and young ones to rip off fur so they don't choke on it, as you eat it more and more you get used to it and can just swallow it with the meat." he explained. Slowly she tore of the fur and started to eat the meat underneath, and she had to admit, it was one of the best things she'd ever had.

After she finished Marrok laid down across from her "before we begin I never got your name?" "Silver" "right, well Silver since your a dog and we don't have to worry about you being with another pack I guess we can let you go, but if you want we can bring you most of the way to a nearby human town, its about a days walk from here but I don't min-" "Actually I wanted to ask you something else, I was wounding, if, well" she sighed then just decided to go ahead and say it "is there anyway I could stay here? And join your clan or something?

-A/N More to come, please leave a review telling me what you did your didn't like blah blah blah I'm starting to sound like a broken record, and once again thanks to Mojotheomegawolf for the name 'Lundy'-


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Warning Explicit Language

-A/N Thank you to Mojotheomegawolf once again for telling me I should include that little warning before a chapter that would involve profanity, I didn't even really think about it because I grew up around it so it doesn't really bother me, also thank you to Mojotheomegawolf once more for giving me the advise about the dialogue and spacing-

Marrok was dumb struck

_"is there anyway I could stay here?"_

He'd figured a dog would be chomping at the bit to get away from a pack of wolves

"_join your clan or something?"_

The most forlorn part to him was, he was excited that she wanted to stay, he hadn't even considered any feeling for her other then regarding her as quite beautiful. At the time he had just considered it an observation, the sky is blue, the grass green, the silver dog before him beautiful. But regardless of his thoughts he had to know her's.

"w-why would you want to stay here? I mean your a dog, you belong in a human town."

"I, I don't know its hard to explain"

"I'm in no hunting parties today so I've got more then enough time"

Silver let out an uncomfortable sigh, she knew he probably wouldn't let her stay unless she had a reason, but was unsure of how to explain hers. After a moments thought she decided to start from the beginning.

"When a dog doesn't live with a human, its called a stray, since my human is dead I'm a stray now, and I know that being a stray is not easy and usually ends in a slow, painful and lonely death. I was actually born a stray, in an abandoned building under a stair case. I never knew my father and my mother died not long after I could walk. I was born with 3 others but they all perished from cold or hunger, i'm not sure which got them first."

by this point she was tearing up slightly, remembering when she was young, not sure of how to leave the small room and trying to cuddle up to her dead mother for warmth, trying to talk to her siblings, not even sure if they were boys or girls.

"Eventually I found out how to leave, I was planning on getting some food and going back but when I left I could barely see, going from the dark dim closet to the bright sun, and the light shinning of the wonderful white fluff that coated the ground and reflected the light with a new shining sparkle if you looked closely. It took me awhile of wondering around aimlessly to catch whiff of a delicious smell, it smelled like the rats my mother used to eat while we had her milk, but much sweeter. I ran to it and found the trash bins outside a house. After a bit I was able to knock over one and found scraps of a turkey. I had just started eating a bit when I heard a click behind me. I turned and saw a man with a rifle leveled at my head, he said something about damn strays making a mess. At the time I had no idea what a gun was but figured he wasn't going to be very nice so I ran. For the rest of the day I looked around but couldn't find the building were my mother was again. That night I slept in an ally way crying for my mother. I woke up to sniggering the next morning, and found two larger dogs looking at me, making comments like

'check out the little runt', 'bet I could catch her before you could', I've never eaten another dog before but I'm kinda hungry how about you?' 'I just ate but I'll do this for fun!'

with that they ran at me, not sure of what else to do I took off. I was running blindly through the streets that they seemed to know well. I kept looking back and eventually noticed one of them was missing, I turned back around and saw he had ran around to get in front of me, I tried to stop but slid on some ice and hit is legs. For awhile they pushed me around and made comments about my mother ditching me to run with another dog each night and kept nipping at me to scare me, but something one of them said struck a nearve I guess, he said

'bet you mommy couldn't wait to ditch you and what even siblings you had did the same fucking thing!'

thats around the point I just lost it, when he leaned down to make another bite at me I sunk my tiny teeth into his face and tore open his eye. He reared back and shook his head which sent me flying down another alley. Even as I hit the ground and started to bleed a little I was glade to her him start yelling

'That bitch! She bit my fucking eye! I can't see out of it! Were the hell is she i'll rip her open!'

his friend started to get scared I guess as, he said 'hey man shut up! You yelling! People are sleeping around here!'

'I can't even race anymore! I've got no fucking depth perception!'

I ran from the alley after that, I found another trash bin with food in it, I was able to eat this time with out being bothered. I lived like this for about 5 days before this little human boy picked me up, he thought I was a cute little puppy and convinced hi parents to keep me. After that I lived with them until they were all killed, even the little boy, by the odd men with the dark skin."

She was a little out of breath from the short story of her life as a stray, it may have been short but it was a bad one that had haunted her dreams on many nights

"after some time I found the building I was born in, I ran in thinking I would find my mother waiting for me, I ignored the smells of the rot and ran back to the closet I was birthed in and the last place I saw my mother and siblings, I ran in and found their rotted corpses. The humans whom I had ran from ran in after me but I didn't even notice them as I ran back out into the street, puked, and fainted from what I had seen."

Marrok knew two things after this, one, she would rather live with a pack of wild animals that she undoubtedly heard stories of being ravaging murders then be a stray, and two, he hated seeing this dog cry. Not knowing what else to do he leaned over and nuzzled her to comfort her.

Silver was a little shocked when he rubbed his head against hers, and surprised herself even more by rubbing back up against him. He had a smell of pine, dried blood and ozone, the mix was odd but she loved it, she just wanted to curl up an-

"wow! Did I really just think about him like that?" she thought to herself pulling away from him for a moment

Marrok at about the same point realized what he was doing and stopped, and thought about the situation, it didn't take him long to decide.

"you could stay but, I can't say all of the pack will be welcoming to a dog, and you would be expected to learn to hunt and at least defend yourself better. Think you could handle that?"

Silver was still a little chocked up so she just nodded a little, after a moment when she composed herself she couldn't stop a smile from forming as she asked her question

"if I'm going to learn these things, I'll need a teacher" she said looking back up at him "think YOU could handle that?" she challenged him playfully.

Marrok let out his own grin "sure thing, lets start with the defending yourself!" he said before playfully pouncing on her and rolling about like a couple of pups.

Unknown to either of them Lundy was sitting near the entrance with a grand smile, she had followed Marrok a little bit after he left to get a look at the 'prisoner'. She had seen the whole escapade. She knew they would be good for each other, both having their pup-hood stole from them by circumstances they could not control, and now being together they are rolling around giggling like they never had the chance to.

"might just do each other some good" she mused while waking away.

-A/N review tell me what you did and didn't like, and sorry this one took longer then others, got stuck on two ways i could go and decided on this one hope you liked it-


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
warning language again  
-A/N sorry this one took a bit, had to take a pet to the vet to get stitches cause he fought a possum. Going to try and update more but I wont be able to on the first week of august-

After they both settled down a bit from rolling around and laughing for well over an hour both of their sides were starting to hurt and they held them while giggles still escaped every now and again.

"So! In all seriousness...I do have to show you...how to defend yourself...we'll start with how to hold off someone who tries to pounce on you." Marrok managed to get out between chuckles and pants.

"S-sure thing!" Silver managed tears coming to her eyes from laughter.

They spent the next few minutes trying to calm down while making small talk and both realized what completely different worlds they came from but yet, how similar both were in some ways. The ways they were similar mostly revolved around hey they both feared the other because of stories they hear about how blood thirsty the other is. Silver having never really got to talk to any older dogs when she was a pup never heard these until she was older herself and thought it silly; and Marrok at spent a length of time with her before he knew she was a dog, his last thoughts was blood thirsty.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Silver asked indicating she was ready to start.

"Well I thought first I'd have to pounce on me and I'd show you what to do."

"Alright, that sounds good but, um, I've never really pounced before" Silver said while looking at her paw slightly embarrassed

Marrok was a little thrown off by this, he could remember pups being taught to hunt, track, and fight, but he'd never really heard of _anyone_ having to be taught to pounce, then again they we're wolves and she was a dog. He should expect some differences such as these.

"I-I guess its just kinda jumping but, you almost lean back on your hind legs a little, kinda coil up and when your ready to pounce lift up your front legs and push off with your hind ones."

Silver slowly nodded. She attempted to follow his instructions but ended up just scrunching up a little and hoping forward a distance barely even noticeable. Marrok meanwhile tried not to laugh and helped her back up.

"here, let me help"

He had her stand still while he put his paws on her side to help her get into the proper position. If not for their fur both would have been blushing feverishly from the ordeal.

"an-and now you just lift up your front legs and push off with your hind ones." Marrok stuttered slightly due to his embarrassment.

Silver nodded slightly and looked down at her legs. Doing exactly as he had instructed she pounced across the room, landing uneasily on her feet.

"Good! Now just do it a few more times to practice and get the feel for it." Marrok said backing up to the wall to giver her some room.

Silver proceeded to pounce all around the room getting better at it with each try. The more she did it the less she had to pay attention and the faster she got at it. In fact it became so natural that she didn't even notice how close she was to the wall when she pounced forward.

Time seemed to move in slow motion. Silver pushed off with all of her might, Marrok looked up and saw how close she was to the wall, and that she was going to hit head first. Marrok started to yell something but Silver couldn't quite make it out and turned mid jump to look and saw he was was running forward with a mortified look on his face. Silver unsure why looked at were she was headed and saw the wall just before she slammed against it head first and lost consciousness.

Marrok made it to her before she hit the ground, putting himself under her to stop her from doing so.

"Oh shit! No, no please wake up get up please! Oh shit..." Marrok trailed off become unable to even form a complete sentence in his worry, so he just curled up around her and licked a gash on her head that was slowly trickling blood down her face.

Marrok sat like that for hours not moving an inch. Finally she started to stir, blinking slowly she lifted her head and looked around. She tried to stand but realized Marrok was laying across her and that he was still licking her head, so intent on the task that had been completed long before that he hadn't even noticed her waking up.

Silver had to admit to herself, it was kinda nice, being this close to him and having his tongue caress her fur. But she was a little confused about how she had got like this

"what happened and why do I have such a bad headache?" she asked looking up at Marrok.

Marrok must of jumped a foot into the air when she spoke, he was about to apologize for what he had been doing but realized she didn't say anything about it, and made no indication that it even bothered her at all. All she did was slowly stand up and pat down her fur that was now sticking up from all the licking. So he decided not to mention it unless she did first.

"You were pouncing and I guess you weren't paying attention cause you went head first into the wall, are you alright now?" he explained still looking a little worried.

Silver nodded remembering now, it was all crystal clear right down to her last thought before she hit 'this is really going to hurt', she couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle about it, then she looked up at Marrok.

"yea I guess I'm fine, just a little headache. But how long was I out? And were you like that the entire time?"

"well you hit the wall just a little after noon, and the sun set awhile ago, and um, yea I guess I was, I was just worried that you, well I don't know that you wouldn't wake back up or something I guess." Marrok told her, a looking down a little at the last part

He was completely thrown off when she walked up and rubbed her head under his chin. He looked down at her, his confusion obvious on his face. She just smiled back at him.

"I just wanted to thank you, for not leaving me while I was out, It's, it's probably the kindest thing anyone's ever done for."

after a few more moments like that he looked down at her.

"so, you hungry? I mean neither of us ate since this morning."

"yea, think you could go get us something to eat?"

"sure thing! I'll be right back."

with that Marrok turned and trotted out of the cave, once he was out of sight he ran into the next den quickly grabbed to good sized ones, grabbing them he turned around to run back until he was about to round the last corner he slowed back to his trot and brought in the food. He gave her one with a little less fur on it so she could eat it better.

They mostly ate in silence, the only difference from this morning being she was actually able to eat this time and they stood right next to each other to eat, their shoulders touching slightly as they enjoyed their meal. After they finished Marrok licked his chops before turning to look at over at Silver just as she ate the last of her own bit of food. And looked up at him.

"Thirsty?" he asked cocking his head to one side.

"yea, haven't had anything to drink in a few days, unless you count the water I inhaled while swimming through the river trying to get away from you?" she added jokingly

"then follow me oh great river-swimmer" he said tilting his head to the cave entrance.

They walked down and around the one of the sides of the valley to a pond, partially shaded by a nearby tree, not that it mattered at night. At this time only a few wolves were out and about, what few there were seemed to be craning their necks to see the canine walking with their alpha. A few even started to whisper to each other about it.

"I think their staring at us." Silver whispered uneasily to Marrok, unsure of all the glowing yellow eyes.

"Their just curious as to who you are."

"oh, should I go introduce myself?"

"I don't think that's the best idea."

"and why not? Scared I'll run off with one of them?" she teased

Marrok blushed for what he thought was the millionth time tonight, and tried to think how best to explain this to her.

"Not exactly, you see not all of them will be quite as accepting as I will."

"what? You don't like new faced around here?"

"well there's that and the fact that, well some wolves just don't like dogs, remember what we talked about earlier? How we've both heard stories about how the other is a blood thirsty monster?"

Silver laughed aloud at this "what? Do the think I'm going to walk up and tear there throat out or something?"

"Not sure, maybe, but they wont exactly wait around to find out, they'd rather kill you first and ask questions later."

"that seems a little harsh."

"that's survival, anyway here's the water I promised!" Marrok said doing his best impression of a bow and gesturing forward.

Silver couldn't keep from the temptation, as he had one paw off the ground pointing at the water and he was so close the the bank, she simply had to. She reached out and swept his paw out causing him to fall flailing around in the water.

He quickly got out of the freezing water and scrunched his body up from the freezing temperature.

"Cold?" Silver asked laughing at how ridicules he looked

"n-no, just t-trying out your p-pouncing technique!" he shot back with a teeth chattering grin.

Silver just stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'd return t-that but I might b-bite mine off!"

Silver laughed then they both turned to drink from the cool water.

A small group of wolves gathered under a nearby tree and they were now all whispering excitedly to one another. It was plain to see they had feelings for each other, but could they be looking at the future alpha female? There was much talk about this, how she looked like a good runner and how she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, therefor would make a fine alpha female, others argued she was to small and frail looking. Finally someone who had remained silent through most of this spoke.

"She is in fact a normal size" Started the speaker, a very large brown wolf, with four large ragged looking scares going down the side of his face. He got them when a bear had attacked a hunting party, the bear killed his wife so in turn he tracked it down to tear it apart by himself, showing up days later battered bloodied, with a bear claw in his jaws. He had said the rest of the bear was back were he found it in pieces.

"Normal size for a _dog_ that is." he growled

"how can you be sure of this Shazu?" questioned a normal sized gray and brown wolf that had to crane his neck to look up into Shazu's eyes.

"Come now! She is smaller, her snout is shorter, her head is smaller, her ears are larger and her paws are tiny compared to ours!"

"yea but maybe she is just a little different looking?"

"She walks with her tail curled up, also she steps in two lines for her right and left, while we all grew up stalking and therefor walk in one straight line with all four paws." he growled at the wolf that continued to question him.

"well so what? If you could tell I'm more then sure Marrok knows, and he seems to trust her, and I'm sure all of you trust his judgment?"

"For now, I do and will continue to follow it until it proves wrong, but that doesn't change it, she is a dog and shouldn't be trusted."

"If Marrok trusts her then trusting Marrok means trusting her." the smaller wolf said again seeming firm upon this standing.

"yes, for now" Shazu repeated before turning and leaving.

After getting their drink Marrok and Silver made their way back to his cave still making jokes and jabs at each other. After a bit more of this Marrok looked at her yawning and said

"guess now's a good time to get some rest huh?"

Silver just nodded, but stopped when he they both started to head back to the same sleeping spots.

"Marrok? I was just wondering, I'm still a little woozy from my hit to the head, and just in case maybe we should sleep in the same room?"

Marrok knew the story was a load of bull but was to busy trying to hide his joy to care, he simply managed to nod and head into the other room with her, he laid down up against the wall and she curled up against his side. Both quickly fell asleep with smiles on their faces. Neither one noticed Shazu standing in the entrance to the cave giving off a low growl as he glared at their sleeping forms with murderous intent.

-A/N wow, meant for this to me a short chapter and to cut it off right when she hit the wall, guess I just got to into writing this. Anyway hope you liked it please tell me what you did and didn't like, Also I would like to hear were you think I'm going with all of this-


	8. Chapter 8

-A/N sorry this took a little bit to update, was spending time with my family and also kinda broke my nose. Enjoy!-

Warning language ahead just as in about every chapter

Chapter 8

Marrok awoke before Silver that morning, but didn't want to move for a little bit, just laying there enjoying how close they were together.

'I love everything about her, her fur, her scent, her voice, her kind eyes, her jokes, her- love? I love her? I mean I know I like her but I've only known her for about three days. Can you fall in love with someone in three days?' he thought to himself.

Deciding to get some breakfast for them before she woke up he got up and went to the opening of the den to stretch, pop his joints and let out a yawn. Looking up at the sun he realized he had slept in.

'oh shit! I was suppose to lead a hunting party today.' Marrok thought to himself with a groan.

He sighed and went into the healer den/food storage. He went into the room and was about to grab to rabbits but stopped when he saw a caribou leg about the same size as both the rabbits together. Smiling at the idea sharing a piece of meat with her he grabbed that instead. Turning around to leave he saw Lundy sitting by the entrance giggling.

"Whats so funny?" Marrok asked after setting down the meat first this time.

"oh nothing. Just remembering something I saw a the other night, weren't you suppose to go hunting today?" she asked with a grin

"I ah, I kinda slept in this morning."

"oh I know."

"what do you mean?"

"they figured the only think to keep you from going out was being ill so they sent me in to check on ya." she informed him with a wink.

"and, ah, what exactly did you tell them?" he asked slowly his face burning, knowing exactly why she was giggling so much.

"that you woke up feeling really sore, one of them offered to go watch the prisoner so you could rest and I told them that you were in a bad mood but any brave soul willing to go in was more then welcome. Needless to say they all decided that getting food for the pack was much more important."

"thank you Lundy, I'm just not sure how to explain it yet." Marrok said looking down.

"what the hell is that suppose to mean? You care about her and are more then willing to let her stay and she wants to. Your teaching her to hunt and take care of herself so she wont become a liability."

"yea, I guess your right. Wait a second! How did you know I was teaching her those things?" he asked looking up suddenly with a cocked eyebrow

"Remember when I said I was smiling and giggling about something I saw the other night? Well I saw it when I walked by your den and heard you laughing, this being so rare I simply had to see what could of possibly provoked it. Saw you rolling around like a little pup!" she explained starting to crack up.

"oh ha ha very funny, was it like how you want to be with Surge?" Marrok and many others knew that for the longest time Lundy had a thing for Surge, a medium sized red wolf with a brownish-yellowish underside.

"yea, well so what?" Now it was her turn to feel her face burn while looking down

Marrok started chuckling, which made Lundy look up and stick her tongue out at him which only served to make him laugh harder. At this point even Lundy was starting to crack up. After a few minutes they managed to compose themselves.

"well I should probably get back, she might be awake by now." Marrok said picking up the leg.

Lundy nodded, stepping out of the entrance to let him through

"I'm happy for you, you've been through a lot and deserve something like this." She whispered to him as he walked by with a smile.

Marrok just nodded and kept going, finally having a special someone to bring meat to. And he couldn't be happier about it, and he wouldn't let it go, not if it meant giving his own life. Which, unknowing to him it just might.

Marrok padded in quietly and set the meal down. Silver was still sound asleep were he'd left her, he went up to her and leaned down to nudge her head with his nose, slowly prodding her awake

"hmm, hi there" Silver groaned, stretching and popping a few joints.

"hey sleepy. I brought some food for us." Marrok couldn't help but smile down at her.

Silver smiled back, she simply couldn't help it, just looking at him, talking to him being near him made her feel warm, safe, and just generally happy. She couldn't think of any other way to describe it, she knew deep down that she had somehow fallen in love with him, but she was scared to admit it to herself, scared that he might not feel the same way no matter how obvious he was about it, scared what the wolves of this pack would think about it, and most of all she was scared what they might do to not only her but him, sure he was big and most of the wolves seemed to either be scared of him or to respect him deeply, but still what about those who don't?

Silver shook her head clear of these thoughts and got up to have breakfast with him, looking around she smiled to herself when she saw the one larger piece of meat for them to share. They walked over and indulged themselves in their meal. This time Silver barely even noticed the fur on it, she was to focused on the wolf standing next to her.

"OK you ready to begin you training for defending yourself?" Marrok asked after they finished their meal.

Silver just nodded while swallowing her last bite. Marrok walked into the center of the room facing away from her

"When your ready I want you to pounce onto my back, and try not to hit the wall this time" He instructed with a slight chuckle

Silver stood up and walked around the other side of his backside, she got ready, going low and tensing her leg muscles, then she released and flew into the air landing on Marrok's back. He started to go down and at first she thought she had actually caught him off guard but realized he was in control as he rolled, flipping both of them and pinning her to the floor, he lightly smacked his paw on her chest and used his other one to pin her by her throat, not really pushing down to preserve her air flow.

"see? Simple, roll with the blow till your on top, do a quick, but strong, blow the the chest to knock the wind out of them, then push your paw down on their throat so they can't breath." he explained, making it sound like the simplest thing in the world.

"ah, yea sure. Think you can get off of me now? Your _really_ heavy you know that right?" she managed to get out with a strained voice.

Marrok obliged stepping off to the side to let her up, she stood in the same place he had stood and waited for him to make his move. After just a few seconds she felt a large mass collide with her and she had to use every ounce of her strength not to go tumbling across the room, but she didn't have enough to support his weight and fell to the ground, Marrok quickly stood up looking down at her with wide eyes.

"you were suppose to roll with it." he said after she stood up

"Yea but your heavy." she shot back

"the point of the rolling is so that you never have to deal with the weight, just roll and get on top. Think you can try it again?"

"yea sure why not."

she got into position again, as soon as she was ready Marrok pounced, this time she rolled with the blow, almost rolled over to far but managed to stop with her on top. Quickly she hit his chest and pinned his throat finishing the move. Marrok nodded and smiled up at her, she stepped off returning his smile.

"OK good, now again" Marrok told her for the first time of many.

Both of them were now laying down for a short break, they had been at it non-stop for most of the day, from roughly noon to now sun-set and this was their first break.

"think w-we could go get a drink?" Silver panted out

Marrok just nodded and got up and started walking out. Silver hopped up and followed suit. They quickly made their way down to the water, they stood shoulder to shoulder both taking long cool drinks. They went ahead and sat down on the bank for a bit to relax, neither one speaking much.

"Ready to get back to it?" Marrok asked standing up.

Silver nodded standing up and following Marrok back to the cave, when suddenly she felt a large mass, not larger then Marrok though, smash into her from behind, using what she had been doing for hours now she rolled with it, getting on top of the scrawny looking dirty yellow and brown wolf. She slammed her paw as hard as she could on his chest, knocking his wind out and leaving a few scratches on him, and pushing her other down on his throat.

"Get off of me you dammed mutt!" he managed to gurgle out

"ooh tough talk for someone in your position. And by the way this 'dammed mutt' just kicked your ass." she growled back. She looked back up and felt her breath get caught in her throat from what she was seeing.

Marrok had started to turn when he heard something going on behind him were Silver was, he saw her take down the yellow and brown wolf he knew as Slauch* he had to brothers-

before Marrok could finish his thoughts he could feel two forms attempting to sneak up on him. He turned once he could feel them close enough to strike, snapping out he caught the first one in the face, his claws tearing several deep ridges over his eyes, the other, larger one jumped on him but only stayed for a second as Marrok slammed his shoulder on the ground, the attacker with it. By that time the first one had jump on his back, they sank their teeth into the back of his neck, they attempted to twist and break his neck but Marrok flexed his neck muscles, preventing them from being able to do anything but sit there dumbly while he rolled onto his back broke free from them.

Marrok backed up for a second and got a better look at what was happening, he was being attacked by Shiv and Shank, Slauch's older brothers. Shank was the oldest and biggest of the three, while Shiv and Slauch were normally looked at as smaller wolves Shank was actually quite a large wolf, well known for his blood red fur to match undying blood lust. The one thing they actually all had in common was for some unknown reason they all _hated_ dogs.

"you have betrayed us all by laying with dogs! The only way you can redeem yourself is to lay down and die with some honor!" Shank snarled

Marrok bellowed a merciless cold laugh devoid of humor, he added a stare that could of frozen the oceans.

"dying by your paws would be the _least_ honorable death anyone could possibly imagine" Marrok growled back

Marrok started to advance when Shiv leapt at him, Marrok caught him mid air with his claws and put him down, hard. Shiv howled in pain as Marrok's claws tore another set of long deep gashes down his side, now Shiv lay bleeding on his back in front of him.

"OK! OK! I give leave me be!" Shiv yelled, his voice breaking with fear

"no, no the punishment for your action's for attacking your _alpha_ and his company are _death_!" Marrok snarled before leaning down and biting onto his throat.

Shiv's eyes went wide and he started to emit a wet gurgling sound from his throat as he slowly drowned in his own blood. Marrok leaving him to die continued his advanced with his newly bloodied muzzle and his teeth bared, ready to kill him. But he stopped when he saw Shank look back at Silver and Slauch.

"Silver! Kill him and run back to the den on the right of ours, you'll find 2 rooms in there one with meat in it and one with a black and white wolf named Lundy, go in there and stay with her till I come and get you!" Marrok instructed before charging Shank

Silver was going to argue but decided against it, instead she looked down at the wolf below her, who's eyes had grown wide. She snarled at him one last time and dragged her claws across his throat making sure it was deep enough for it to kill him. As his eyes started to roll back into his skull she ran past Marrok and the Dark red wolf caught in combat and back to the caves. She reached the mentioned cave and ran into a surprised looking black and white wolf

"are you Lundy?" Silver chocked out.

"yea, um whats going on? Were is Marrok?"

Silver explained everything that had happened as fast as she could every now and again glancing back, hoping he was OK.

Marrok had fought bigger and tougher battles but never with the stakes this high before. He tore at him with every blow and hardly felt the ones against him. He needed Shank to do something to make himself open to attack. Suddenly Shank lunged forward to try to bite at his face, Marrok took the chance to grab onto the side of his neck and slam him to the ground, he lifted his paw to smash down on his head crushing his skull. Shank stopped all movement, from his flailing limbs to his heavy breathing.

Marrok only stayed for a second before he ran to the Healer's den. He ran in to see Lundy consoling a crying Silver. Marrok couldn't help but smile, despite his many cuts and punctures he was overjoyed that she was fine.

"Look! See? He is fine." Lundy told her indicating Marrok standing in the entrance.

Silver looked up to see him standing there, blood flowing out of several cuts and bite marks, but despite it all he was smiling at her and she couldn't help but do the same. She ran to him and buried her face in his chest.

"I-I thought I'd lost you" Silver cried into his chest

Marrok leaned back and lifted her head with his nose

"hey hey! You think a couple traitorous pups like them could stop me from being with you? But hey are you OK?" Marrok asked the last question with deep concern in his eyes

"ye-yea I'm fine" she sniffled in response.

"Marrok, I, I think I. No I do love you, and today made me realize that, seeing you get attacked, it was worse then when I found my mother and siblings dead, it, it was the worst thing I've ever seen." She sobbed burying her face in his fur once again.

Marrok just stood in shock for a few seconds. She had just admitted that she loved him. This entire ordeal along with her saying she loved him had only served to enforce the fact in his mind that he to loved her with all his being.

"Excuse me, Marrok, Most of the pack has gathered outside, they want to know what happened, and why they attacked you and your companion." it was said by a white wolf with brown spots, he was one of the wolves that was with the group of the elders.

Marrok sighed, nodded and started walking. He stopped half way out to turn back and look at Silver and Lundy, motioning for them to follow. All three of them walked out, Marrok in lead Silver and Lundy on either side. Marrok walked out onto the peak of the stone ridge were the three caves were located, looking out over about forty or so wolves.

"I'm sure you all want answers as to why they attacked me, honestly the only reason I can think of is that recently I've spent a lot of time with Silver here" he said gesturing to her "and somehow it has become known that she is indeed a dog. But quite frankly I couldn't care less about her breeding, in the past fee days I've fallen in love with this dog and you will either show her respect or deal with me."

"Marrok, just what are you saying?"

He turned to see it was his mother who had spoken.

"I'm saying mother, that Silver is who I choose, She is the Shadow Valley clan's Alpha female." Marrok said in a commanding voice.

And that's when all hell broke lose.

-A/N Thanks to Mojotheomegawolf for the name Slauch will update today or tomorrow please review!-


	9. Chapter 9

-A/N sorry it took longer then I said to update, my computer got really messed up, I had to do a system restore and lost 3 chapters I had written while I couldn't get online (which was part of the problem) and I lost OpenOffice, the program I usually write with anyway here it is.-

Hey guess what? Warning language ahead (shocker right?)

Chapter 9

For five full seconds no one moved or said anything. Then all at once, they did one of several things, some just stood. either in shock or just not sure what to do, some started yelling and swearing in protest, and some bolder ones charged up to try and confront Marrok head on. A few, though ran up to defend their leader both verbally and physically. This chaos lasted until-

"ENOUGH!" Marrok boomed across the entire valley, his voice bouncing off the trees and rocks to repeat his command.

A few of those 'bold' wolves that had tried to charge the raised up platform, were he and the other stood, stumbled and turned tail at the sound of his voice. But everyone stopped dead at whatever they were doing.

"I don't care if some of you don't agree with my decision, but I'll be _dammed_ if you will bring this _madness_ across my clan. If you so wish it then go ahead, leave. But be warned! If this is the path you choose the rest of us will abide by our packs law and kill you on sight." His voice had lowered but each word still seemed to hit each wolf like rocks.

Even though some had been ready to fight right then and there no one moved to leave, in fact most of them moved back into the crowed bellow and sat down to hear the rest of this announcement. A few how ever stayed up to make sure no one tried to attack Marrok and the others still up there. Among those that stayed was Surge, he had managed to get himself right next to a she-wolf he had been attracted to for some time now, and Lundy was more then happy to be standing next to him.

Marrok took a moment to assess what had just happened before he continued with what they always do when someone dies in the clan, he spread out their duties among what wolves remained; their hunting, patrol, scouting and guarding times were to be given fairly to ensure that at no time the pack was weakened by their death. It may seem cold and callous but it was survival.

Shank couldn't believe he had made it, after Marrok's final blow he had been knocked unconscious, waking to see some sort of announcement was being made, he had only heard part of it but gathered Marrok had announced the _dog_ as his mate. It got a little crazy after that but it was enough for him to slip out one of the many openings unnoticed.

Now he was running to the fall back point to meet with their new leader. Both of his brothers had been killed and he had failed to kill Marrok and that bitch he was running with. His master would _not_ be happy. He also couldn't even bring himself to care about his worthless brothers, they had both been pathetic excuses for wolves, Slauch couldn't even take care of a dog by himself, no they deserved to die.

Shank's thoughts ceased as he reached the cliff side cave. It was quite place, the cave was facing out across the ocean so it would have been difficult to just stumble upon it, and it was in a bit of a clearing so you could see anyone coming for a few feet. Over the cliff was nothing but water, and a few sharp rocks at the bottom.

Shank didn't have the time to admire the scenery though, he ran straight to the cave, stopped and entered slowly with his head bowed.

"Well?" a deep voice growled from the shadows.

"w-we failed sire, My brothers fell quickly and Marrok was to powerful for me to take out by myself. He knocked me out and thought me dead, I managed to sneak away while everyone was in an uproar." Shank had charged the monstrous alpha wolf without a second thought, but now he stood, tail between his legs, head down and shaking in pure fear.

Just as the words left Shank's mouth Shazu left the shadows, stopping just inches from the practically cowering wolf, breathing down he neck Shazu continued to growl wanting nothing more then to end his life. But alas, he needed him alive, for _now_.

"what were they in uproar about?" Shazu breathed, trying to calm himself.

"I...I'm not one-hundred percent sure, b-but I, ah, think Marrok declared the dog as alpha female."

"and this caused an uproar? Well then, we might just have a chance to get more supporters in the future. Maybe your mission wasn't a _complete_ failure" he sneered

Shazu paced around in thought, it was obvious that those three idiots wouldn't have thought of an attack themselves, they were more of the deserting type. Even more so it would be found that they _knew_ she was a dog. A fact that had not been made public at the time. Shazu would have to lay low for a bit to ensure they wouldn't find it was he who had arranged the attack.

The real problem was what to do about Shank, he could still be of use, but he couldn't go back to the valley, and Shazu _had_ to go back, if he didn't the would get suspicious. Shank wasn't the strongest hunter and would need help getting food. Perhaps Shazu could steal some...

"Shank come with me we have much to discuss and I want to get out of this cave for a moment." Shazu commanded already walking out.

Shazu sat at the cliff, looking out at the sun setting behind sparkling ice caps in the distance, but all he could see is the sun setting on a failed assassination. Shank walked slowly to sit next to him.

"We will not be able to act for awhile now, with such a public move they will all be on guard. We would have to lie low for some time now, and as you cannot return you must remain here."

"bu-but what will I eat? You know I couldn't hunt, and I'm sorry sir but I'm just not the type to fast or eat plants." the smaller wolf wined

"I said you would _remain_ here, I didn't say you would _live_ here" Shazu clarified, staring at him with malicious intent.

Before Shank could move to run Shazu's paw lashed up, knocking him on to his back. He placed the paw over his throat, slowly digging his claws into his trachea.

"I just cannot let you live, your to much of a liability. That and you have thoroughly pissed me off with you incompetence and failure." Shazu informed the slowly dying wolf, his voice cold and flat.

"After I kill you I'll make sure that you left no trace of blood, nor a trail here, I'll also get rid of the body of course." Shazu could have been talking about vacation plans.

"But, you need not worry yourself with any of that. Your part is done, rather poorly, but still, _done_." with the last word he pushed down on his neck, crushing it like a dead, brittle stick.

He proceeded to kick the body down the cliff, watching emotionless as it tumbled before smashing onto the rocks below. The blood and mess was washed away by the crushing waves. He took a bit of joy in knowing that his blow to the neck hadn't killed him, only prevented him from screaming on the way down.

With that he turned to make sure there was no trace before he made the walk back to the Valley, were he would wait for months, pretending nothing had happened, even talk to Marrok from time to time like he was still one of his best friends. One day though, he would get his chance. He would also never even think of the wolf whom he had just tossed over a cliff.

-A/N Short and not to sweet either, as I indicated in the last paragraph, the next chapter will be a bit of a time lapse. Only a few months. Oh and I went back to look through a few things in past chapters. Sorry if it seems I mixed up a few words. The program I use has some kind of auto type thing were if it thinks your about to type something it completes the word for you. Very annoying but I think I turned it off.-


	10. Chapter 10

-A/N Like I said, small time lapse, it went from the late winter to about mid summer, just a bit before the summer solstice-

Warning contains language.

Chapter 10

Marrok got up early that morning, he was to go out on a hunt today. He got up carefully so as not to wake Silver, who had been curled up next to him. He couldn't believe it had already been about half a year since he met her.

Despite many wolves obvious doubts she had adjusted well to life in a pack. She had since learned how to hunt, and had even helped to bring down _two_ adult caribou, on _one_ hunt. She had become an exceptional tracker, the only real flaw was she didn't like to take a life. She even said she still had nightmares about the wolf she had killed the day she was declared alpha female.

Marrok was taken from his thoughts by someone nuzzling his side. Despite his best efforts, she still woke up without the warmth of his body. He couldn't help but smile when ever he looked at her. Their love was still as strong as it was the past winter, if not then stronger. The only thing Marrok was worried about when it came to them, was pups.

"you going out hunting?" Silver yawned while stretching.

Marrok nodded. Usually they had similar duties, but everyone now and again they had to go their separate ways. Today Silver was to take a scouting party to check out a rumor of a human sled team that was nearby. The info came from a hunting group that was known to stretch the truth. Even so they couldn't let something like that go unchecked. Silver was attending in case, for what ever reason, they needed to make contact with the sled dogs they'd be much more willing to talk to another dog then a wolf.

"do you know who you're taking with you today?" Marrok asked as they walked out of the den.

"I was thinking about that last night, it would be best to take a smaller group, maybe four or five counting myself, also they would either need to be fast, stealthy or both. I'd probably go with Surge, Harv* and Kade" Silver said while turning to look at him with a hurt glance.

Marrok looked down slightly, he knew why she looked hurt. Even after all this time he was still checking up on her with questions like that. Every time her answers were spot on.

Surge wasn't the largest wolf but he was one of the fasts in the pack, Harv had earned the nick name ears because she could hear a piece of gossip in a snow storm, or a couple of dogs talking from a safe distance while hiding. Kade was always quite, almost scarily so, he was completely black, his eyes were such a dark shade of brown and yellow that they to seemed black, for months Silver had thought he was a mute until she heard him threaten a younger wolf's life for hitting on his daughter.

"So, tough guy, who are you taking on your little hunting trip?" Silver jabbed back at him jokingly, with a widening smile.

"well lets see, I'd say it would do to have a group large enough to deal with any threat we cross, but small enough to move fast, so about six or seven counting myself. I'll probably take Saber, Kabe, Tanto, Lundy, Shazu and Azul." Marrok replied with an embarrassed smile, he was glad though, that she wasn't to bothered by his worrying.

"Get some food, get everyone together and head out then?" Silver asked while stopping to scratch the side of her head were another pesky flea had gotten her.

"sounds good, lets get to it, and I'll have a surprise for you when you get back" Marrok replied making his way to Lundy's den to make sure she was up and get a meal for him and Silver.

They had the best laid plans, but even the best laid plans, can go straight to hell.

Marrok growled in frustration, The hunting Party had been out all day and had lost track of _three_ different caribou. It was getting late so they were heading back with nothing but a few unlucky rabbits and other smaller critters that had crossed their path. Undoubtedly what little meat the did have would help, but they would need more food soon, especially if the summer solstice was coming.

Marrok's thoughts were interrupted when he caught whiff of a bull moose, normally he would of let it be considering the animals size and power, but they needed the meat and with Marrok _and_ Shazu they could probably take it down easy. Marrok almost chuckled at the thought, nothing with a bull moose was easy.

Marrok silently signaled to the rest of the group the scent. Then took point following the scent about one-hundred-fifty meters to a clearing. In the clearing was a full grown bull moose, grazing completely unaware of the wolves stalking it from the shadows. Marrok slowly made his way about a quarter of the way around the clearing before going low the ground, his belly almost touching the grass as he made his way painfully slowly to the beast before him.

When he was in range he pounced, sailing through the air claws erect, jaws open with his teeth ready to tear into the flesh. As he crashed on the creatures back the silence shattered like glass. Marrok growled as he sank his teeth into the back of its neck, the moose bellowed in rage and started bucking, his hooves crashing into the ground, the other wolves shot from the shadows and surrounded the moose.

After a bit of effort the moose tossed Marrok the the ground just off to his side, and started to look around him, he took in the fact that he was surrounded by wolves, he was already loosing a lot of blood from his neck, he took the time to accept one fact, he was going to die, here, today, no matter what he did he couldn't escape. But, he could probably take at least one of them with him, to his choice it would be the large black and gray one who had jumped on his back.

Marrok hit the ground hard. He felt a rib crack and the wind leave his lungs. While gasping to catch his breath he looked up into the eyes of the great beast, in them he saw many things, anger, a flicker of fear, and then finally acceptance, in his eyes he saw the great beast accepted his death. 'shit' Marrok thought to himself, he had dealt with many animals in his time, he had learned when they were dangerous, many thought the most dangerous emotion a prey could have was fear, but no, it was acceptance, because then they cared not for their life only enough to save or end the lives of those around them.

A few wolves pounced at the moose but he seemed to hardly notice as he smashed them away with his antlers, sending them hurtling to the trees. Shazu could hardly suppress a smile, sure he could of probably helped to take down the creature and end it all now. With both him and Marrok it would be easy, but he would rather just hang back and watch. It was so stupidly simple, let the behemoth crush Marrok like a bug and save him from having to dirty his own hands.

Marrok tried to roll back onto his feet but had to roll back when the huge hoof slammed down right next to him, blocking his path, the other smashed down on the other side blocking him in. Finally the creature reared up, bringing its leg down fast, aimed right at Marrok's chest. 'This is it' Marrok thought to himself.

Silver and the others had to walk for the better part of the day to get to their destination. She knew they were close because she could see a column of smoke off in the distance, indicating a human camp. As they neared it she had them stop more and more often to let Harv listen for any signs of someone or something approaching.

"i don't hear anything." Harv informed

"you sure?" Silver asked

"yes I'm sure, again." Harv sighed, she respected Silver but she was being paranoid.

"sorry, just don't want anything to do wrong."

With a nod they all fell back behind into formation, Harv in front, Silver about six feet behind her, with Surge and Kade flanking them on either side about six feet behind Silver. The point of this formation was for Harv to be the eyes and ears for what was coming up ahead, Surge and Kade to be able to run ahead, fall back, or hide quickly with what ever Silver commanded in the center.

They quickly approached the camp, when they got with in a visual distance they broke the formation, spreading out and getting close enough to make their own assessments, after five or six minutes they all backed up and re-grouped. To share what they had seen and assess the situation. Surge was the first to speak.

"From what I can tell it looks like the human tried to make it across on the last bit of snow before it all melted and turned over his sled damaging it, so now he is camping out until he can fix it. He should be gone within a few days. So we just make sure no one comes near here for now. Agreed?"

Harv nodded but Silver and Kade shook their heads, earning them a tired and questioning look from both Surge and Harv.

"I know you've never been in one of those camps and you may not have looked to closely at many, but its to damn still to be normal, I think someone or something forced them from there, or worse." Silver said flatly,

"I can smell blood, both human and dog, there is also blood splattered on the human tent along with a few holes to suggest gunfire." Kade added in his deep gruff voice that reminded Silver of a human that had spent a lot of his time puffing cigars.

"sorry guys, but we need to take a closer look." Silver informed the others, which earned her a small groan from Harv.

Silver just rolled her eyes and started down the incline. As planned she entered the camp first, with Kade following in the shadows. She found a few snow domes that sled dogs use to sleep but decided against bugging a sleeping sled dog. She made her way to the human tent. There was indeed blood and bullet holes but the human seemed to be sleeping peacefully under his blanket. 'Guess the blood and holes were from another occasion and just never got fix-' her thoughts stopped when she saw part of the human's hand sticking out, the flesh was a pale bluish-gray, no doubt dead for some time now.

Silver pulled the blanket off and jumped back immediately, she had expected to find a dead human, she did, but she also found three rather pissed looking wolverines growling at her. One brave soul pounced, Silver side-stepped and pulled it the ground, biting down on its throat and crushing the bones. She ran back out to find that from the snow waning snow had risen nine more wolverines.

Kade Charged out of the shadows and jumped over three of them, twisting in the air to catch one with his claws and pull it with him. He landed, putting the smaller creature under him and breaking its spine, next to silver, in the circle of now ten wolverines. Silver knew they were in trouble, their only backup was Harv and Surge, and they were two hills away. Far enough that by the time they got there it could be over. Silver was pretty good and defending herself, she had proved that more then once when attacked by other wolves, wild canines, and other animals they had met while hunting. And Kade was probably a good fighter himself, but they were _surrounded_ by _ten wolverines_. She couldn't see anyway out of this one. Finally something entered her mind, acceptance, she accepted the situation with deadly finality.

-A/N just thought I'd say something that I hadn't even thought of, but as nothing but OCs have been present as of yet every character in this chapter and the past ones belong to me. Honestly I couldn't care less if someone uses them in fact I'll be glade that you liked it enough to use them, but just have the common curtsey to mention my name as of were you got them. Anyway please review-


	11. Chapter 11

-A/N sorry this took awhile, been busy blah blah blah here's the chapter-

Waning rough lingo ahead, in others I swear like an Irish sailor that just stubbed his toe.

Chapter 11

they were _surrounded_ by _ten wolverines_. She couldn't see anyway out of this one. Finally something entered her mind, acceptance, she accepted the situation with deadly finality, 'I'm not going to make it out of this one' she thought to herself. 'This is it, out here in the cold snow, this is were I'm going to- oh fuck it!' with that last thought she slammed her paw onto the nearest wolverine's head, she dug her claws into the back of his neck, picking him up she through him with all her might at the broken sled. Weather it was luck or if she subconsciously aimed it she would never know, but the wolverine hit a jagged piece of wood that stuck out, it impaled him through the chest killing him almost instantly.

Kade, taking her lead, charged a wolverine, tackling it into the tent were the human body still lay. Kade looked into the shocked face of the wolverine before he leaned down to tear its throat out. He quickly jumped off and backed his way into the tent, going carefully around a pole in the center. As he backed up half the attackers that were still alive slowly advanced into the tent. Their smaller bodies close the ground, their long blood stained claws leaving long marks in the dirt, snow and blood as the dragged themselves along. Kade kept backing up until he felt his tail brush against something, the back of the tent. He looked over his shoulder realizing that the tent was put up partly in the cover of a small rock alcove. He was cornered, and out numbered.

Silver quickly got into a cycle of running in a circle around the camp, clawing and biting at any that got to close, but they also returned the favor. Some foolish one tried to run the opposite direction to catch her head on, she didn't miss a beat in grabbing him and proceeding to use his body as a shield from his friends while he still thrashed about in her jaws. Eventually his claw met her shoulder, the pain burned through her as is cut into the tender muscle, now each stepped caused her agony. In her anger towards him for crippling her so she crunched down harder, crushing bones and letting his blood flow freely over he front and face. The captured wolverine didn't last long like that and quickly died, Silver through the carcass back at her followers, smacking the lead on in the face and slowing them all down a bit.

Silver looked around for Kade to see how he was holding up, she felt a pit forming in her stomach as she saw a group of wolverines advancing into the tent, undoubtedly closing in on him. She was about to turn to help when she stumbled over one of the dead dogs that lay all around the remains of this camp. She hit the ground hard, slamming her injured shoulder onto a rock. She rose slowly to her feet to see her own followers had surrounded her in a semi-circle. She suddenly had another brilliantly stupid idea, piss them even more, to accomplish this she started barking, loud enough that it even hurt her ears.

Marrok saw the hooves about to come down on his face when he had an idea, he rolled onto his front paws and tucked his back ones in tight, waiting, until the moose picked himself up to his peak height, then he lashed out with all his might, both of his paws connected with the bull moose's chest, sending him off balance on his two legs and sprawling into the snow. Marrok fell down onto his back again but quickly rolled to his paws and charged head on at the bull, who in turn slammed him with his large antlers and flipped him over his back. Marrok landed hard on his paw and heard a loud snap, followed by a pain searing up through his leg.

He ignored the pain for a moment to run back and jump the on fallen creatures back. Not wasting another moment he drove his teeth in the back off its neck again, this time he pulled back dislocating part of its spinal column. He then rolled off and ripped open its throat for good measure. Marrok laid there on his back, he hurt like hell and as his adrenaline left it was replaced by more and more agony. He looked up at the tree tops and hoped Silver was having better luck with her day. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Shazu walking up and looming over him, with a menacing sneer on his face, mumbling something about surviving.

"I'm telling you something's not going right down there." Surge insisted yet again.

"And I'm telling you that if something was wrong either Silver or Kade would of signaled us, you know like we planned." Harv insisted

"What if they can't? What if someone or something is preventing them, maybe their dead, what if-" Harv would never find out what else Surge had to say because both of them could hear Silver barking like a mad dog and took off down the hill like two bats out of hell.

Surge was the fastest wolf in the Shadow Valley clan, reaching Silver before Harv was even half way. He jumped down by her side, letting out a deep, murderous growl at the wolverines who were shielding their ears from Silver's onslaught of barking. Silver stopped backing when she realized Surge had come, and that Harv wasn't far behind. The wolverines started to back up slightly, unsettled by the sudden appearance of _another_ wolf

Kade was corned by four rather pissed looking wolverines, his back against the wall he didn't have many options.

"any last words wolfy?" one of the wolverines asked boldly

Kade feigned to be deep in thought before he answered with one simple word.

"Catch!" He shouted as he struck out with his paw, sending the main support for the tent flying at the wolverine who had spoken, who dumbly caught it in his mouth.

The tent fell over all of them, Kade simply cut a hole in it with his claws and jumped out while the wolverines clawed and thrashed about for a bit before they shredded the tent and escaped. In that time Kade had ran and joined Silver and Surge. All the wolverines regrouped, and slowly stalked forward in a line.

Silver knew this was bad. Surely they wolverines were much smaller and could be tossed around easy, but they were quick and vicious creatures. As Harv had yet to catch up it was three wolves against four wolver- wait two of them had vanished! Silver looked around while still keeping one eye on the advancing. She found their location when she heard a blood curling scream off to the side. Everyone turned their heads, wolves and wolverines alike, to see Harv's last moments as two wolverines tore her head off of her body. One of them picked it up in his teeth and through it at the three wolves.

Kade's eyes flared in pure rage. He let out a snarl that could of turned a grizzly bear's brown fur white. He ran at the two who had killed Harv, he swatted the first one away like a fly. It landed in the fire a few feet away screaming in pain as it burned to death. He picked up the second one in his jaws, who in turn flailed about, clawing and biting at Kade, but Kade ignored his futile attempts. He lifted him up high before he slammed him down onto the rock slab were they both stood, over and over he slammed the wolverine's body with all his might. He kept at it even after the wolverine was dead, hot tears burning his eyes and tickling down his face.

Silver suddenly remembered something, Harv was Kade's mate and the mother of his two children. Silver cursed herself for not remembering that. She turned back to the situation at hand, obviously Kade wasn't going to be able to help them in this fight, so it was her and surge against four wolverines. While she considered what would be the best course of action Surge leaned his head down next to her's.

"I got an idea, follow my lead and circle around the other side." he whispered quickly.

With that Surge started to walk sideways around the wolverines, Silver quickly did the same in the opposite direction. The wolverines all started looking at Kade still bashing the dead wolverine into the rock, to Surge growling at them, to Silver reaming silent with cool resolve. While they were all giving themselves whiplash Silver pounced, knocking one to the side and landing on another. She quickly bit down on its throat ending its life in one quick motion. Surge quickly joined her in their midst. Slashing one wolverine's throat with his claws, another jumped on his back and clawed at his eyes.

Silver ran towards Surge, grabbing the head of the wolverine on his back, and pulling it off. She then crushed its skull and dropped the body. Surge had a nasty cut over his left eye that would probably leave a scar going diagonally over his eye. The both walked over to the one wolverine that was still breathing, she was a younger one. Now that the others were dead she was quite scared. They proceeded to question her, all the while behind them Kade kept bashing the body into the ground, keeping her frightened and answering questions.

They found out that the wolverines had found the human camp after they had crashed. They came in the night. Killing all the humans and dogs, the only one who had even put up a fight was the last human, he had blasted of two shots of a shotgun in his tent, he didn't hit anything but the tent wall and was killed like the others for his trouble. They then stayed here for awhile, eating a few humans and dogs for food and using their fire they set the other tent on fire, the one with the other human male, the female and the smaller human. They kept the fire going as a trap, to entice others to come and have a look so they could get more food.

Silver nodded, taking all this information in. She had decided to just leave, let this one fend for itself here alone. But as she turned away she tried to pounce on Silver's back. Surge grabbed her back end and Silver grabbed her front, they both turned away suddenly and ripped the wolverine in half.

After a bit Silver convinced Kade to stop bashing the now very bloody corpse. But he refused to go back with them.

"I-I have nothing now. My beautiful mate is dead, I...I failed her, I do not deserve to live any longer for it. I'm just going to wait here, with her, till I die." Was all he would say with tears in his eyes.

After much trying Silver finally just lost it with him.

"fine! Stay here and rot you fucking coward!" she shouted at him

"how am I a coward? Am I not here, facing up to the fact I let my mate die!" he yelled back, standing up in anger.

"no! You standing here feeling sorry for yourself and abandoning your family! Your children! Your leaving them to fend for themselves so you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself until you die. You are a coward!" Silver growled, stepping right up to his face.

Surge was unsure what to do here. He was almost certain a fight was about to take place, but he was torn about what to do. Should he get involved? Who should he help? Should he just stay out of it? While he was thinking these thoughts Kade was standing there, a lost look on his face at Silver's words.

"y-your right." he said, looking down as a fresh tear ran down his muzzle as he realized what he almost did.

"just forget it, come back with us and be with your family, they will need you now more then ever." Silver added told him in a soft voice.

With that they all turned and headed back, there was nothing here for them any more, nothing here for anyone. Before they left though, Silver spread the fire, to consume the entire camp, to burn all the bodies and all the remains.

-A/N I'm sure you may have noticed I just didn't feel like dialog in this chapter, sorry just didn't feel like it, mostly because the next chapter will probably have a lot of it so I decided to make this one mostly action. Oh and please review, tell me were I screwed up and what you like, what could have been better, feel free to ask anything. Or if you don't want to do that for what ever reason then you can PM me and I'll try to get back to you.-


	12. Chapter 12

-A/N sorry for the long time till this update, been busy with my computer messing up again, and I kinda forgot my password for the site (that only set me back like a day the rest was me just doing other crap) also I was trying to get a voice recognition program to work, and use it to write this. I'll save a lot of space from my list of complaints and just say this, it sucked, plain and simple that program sucked. My new motto is S.S.D.D and here is the chapter.-

WARNING: there is baaaad words ahead (my wallet is empty from putting money in the swear jar)

Chapter: 12

Marrok slowly stood. He was in the forest, alone. It wasn't quite dark, but it wasn't light either, it seemed like some sort of windless overcast had taken place. He tried to sniff around to find were the others had gone but only found two scents, that apart wouldn't bother him so much but together filled him with dread, Silver and blood.

He ran around trying to find out were she was, why was she even here? She was suppose to have gone the opposite direction with the scouting party.

"Damn it!" Marrok shouted in frustration

It seemed as if both scents were everywhere, no matter were he sniffed, the grass, the air, the trees, himself even! He sat down to calm himself as he was starting to get really panicked about it all. Just as he sat he heard a blood curling scream, the voice was the all to familiar voice of his love.

"Silver! Silver were are you!" Marrok screamed as he bolted toward the sound of her voice.

Suddenly the wind raged out of no where, lashing at Marrok's face as he ran. The screaming got louder and louder as he got closer, and it was soon joined by laughter, a dark cold laughter that echoed in Marrok's mind as much as the screams. Marrok opened his mouth to yell again but wasn't even sure he said anything, no sound could be heard over the howl of the wind. Then all at once it all stopped, the wind, the screams, the laughter all of it.

Marrok stopped running to look around, he saw nothing but trees, grass and a few hills. He started to make his way to the hills when he heard a loud crackle of wood splintering and felt a sudden heat from his back. He turned and couldn't believe what he saw, behind him the entire forest was ablaze, but that wasn't what had stopped Marrok in his tracks. One of the trees was moving, not falling but _moving_.

The limbs were swing about and pushing off the ground as if it were about to stand. Without warning one of the limbs lashed out, knocking Marrok on his back, then another pushed down on his chest, effectively pinning him to the ground. He began to struggle to get free when he heard the screaming again, this time much closer.

He turned to his side and saw her. Silver was on top of a hill, barely twenty feet from him. But she was cut up bad, and bleeding all over. She was on her side looking at him with pleading eyes. Then Marrok saw him, a large black silhouette of a canine. Looming over silver with fiery yellow eyes, his jaws opening to reveal a set of long wicked sharp blood covered teeth, and they were slowly closing in on her throat.

Marrok bellowed in rage as he slammed his paw against the tree limb holding him, he heard the wood crack, followed by pain filled cry, seeming to come from the tree itself. Marrok didn't hesitate, he smashed his paw again and again against it, his paw started to bleed from the rapid blows but with each hit the tree limb cracked more and more. Finally it snapped off, he didn't hesitate to roll to his feet and charge wolf looming over Silver.

"Don't you touch her you bastard! I'll tear you limb form limb!" Marrok shouted in pure burning rage as he barreled into the attacker.

The blow sent them both tumbling down the hill side. They both landed on the back of a small pound. Marrok quickly got up and pounced on top of the attacker, who in turn only laughed. Marrok drove his claws into their chest, picking up by his own flesh.

"whats so funny?" Marrok growled.

"you were going to kill me, and yet you think suicide is for cowards" the wolf mused.

Marrok was at a loss for words when he had a chilling realization, he was staring at himself, he suddenly dropped the attack, or himself he didn't know anymore. He looked into the pond, at his own reflection. He was covered in mud and blood, Silver's blood. He looked back down at the attacker but he was gone, he was never there. Marrok ran back to the hill top were Silver lay.

He found here there, dead, her body mangled and mutilated, her throat ripped open wide. Marrok looked back out over the way he had come, there was no fire, the tree coming to life, not even an overcast, in fact there wasn't a cloud in the sky. What he did see was the spot were he had woken up, the grass still pushed down from him having laid there. He had never ran, he was right here the entire time.

Marrok looked back down at Silver's dead body and almost screamed. She had picked her head up and was looking at him with dead, unseeing eyes.

"You. Killed. Me." she said in a wispy voice, one that reminded Marrok of the wind, on a cold, cold day.

Marrok blinked and suddenly he was surrounded, the entire forest was filled with dead Silvers, all chanting those same three words. Then they all started to advance on him. Clawing at him and pulling him down. Marrok didn't resist, he let them pull him down hoping they would kill him. For he knew he could not live with out her. Just as the last though crossed his mind he saw the first one lunge at him and tear out his throat.

Marrok awoke with a start, he wasn't in the forest, he wasn't surrounded by dead dogs trying to kill him, he was however on his back, in his own den with tears rolling down the side of his face.

"hey sleepy head, you okay?" a concerned voice asked.

He raised his head and saw it was Silver who had spoken, the real one. He jumped up and pounced on her. Pulling her into a rough canine hug.

"your alive! Oh it was just a dream! Your-hey! Your bleeding." Marrok said all at once, tilting his head slightly at the last part.

"yea, I guess so, and no shit! Mined letting me go now? As I've said before your kinda heavy" Silver groaned.

"sorry" Marrok said, letting her up

"so why wouldn't I be alive?" Silver asked, her concern re-appearing.

"nothing, don't worry, just a really, really bad dream. Why are you bleeding?" Marrok inquired nodding at the cut in her shoulder.

"Scouting went to all hell, it was some kind of trap set up by a group of clever wolverines, the killed the humans and dogs and were waiting for more. When we showed up they attacked us, me and Surge are fine, just a few scratches." Silver explained.

"What about Kade and Harv?" Marrok asked, his ears folding as he already anticipated the answer.

"Kade is physically fine, but they killed Harv, ripped her head off right in front of him took me awhile to get him to stop beating the corpse of the bastard wolverine, and well, he almost didn't come back, he wasn't going to at all until I mentioned his children, then he seemed to snap out of it. But I think we should give him a break for a bit, he was really messed up over it. So what about you? I heard bits and pieces of what happened but not much."

"Well, we didn't find much so we started to head back. On the way I caught the scent of a bull moose, normally I wouldn't attempt to tackle on of them but we needed more food then normal, with the summer solstice and all. So basically he knocked me around a bunch, I hurt my leg and a few ribs, got knocked out but on the bright side we got a huge amount of meat." Marrok roughly explained, trying to make it sound better then it was.

"What so special about the summer solstice?" Silver asked, tilting her ears forward in curiosity.

"oh, its um, well its a big event here, every year we have a bit of a, um, celebration, mostly eat and just be cheerful, honor what pack members we've lost and, well its, also kind of a time when, well, a lot of wolves in the pack, on or around that time decide to, well, have pups." Marrok stuttered out, obviously nervous about the subject.

"oh, I ah, I see." Silver said, blushing under he fur as she looked down at her paws. Unsure of how to say that in truth, she wanted to have pups with him.

"hey I'm not saying that everyone always does that, its just, you know, what some like to do, we can just eat with everyone else take part in the celebration, the only difference for me and you is I start it off with a speech thing about all the wolves we lost in the past year. After that me and you can just go eat with every-" Marrok was cut off when Silver leaned in to give him quick lick on the cheek before she started for the door.

"hey come on, when you were out Lundy made the announcement about what happened to the Scouting and Hunting groups, lets go get some food now" Silver said

"hey wait, does that, did that mean you want to-"

"Will you stop gawking and move your fuzzy butt?" Silver said with a playful smile

"yes ma'am!" he said, with a mock salute.

With that they both walked out to get something to eat. They met up with Lundy and Surge, who Lundy finally got up the nerve to tell him how she felt. Through most the meal Lundy and Surge tried not to laugh at the goofy smile on Marrok's face. Even with all their poking and prodding Silver wouldn't tell them why either, they would find out soon enough, after all it was only three days till the summer solstice.

-A/N could have been better in my opinion but that's the best I got for now. Chapter 13 will the the summer solstice, and while I have no problem with people posting 18+ content on here, I do not read nor will I write any so don't go hoping for that kind of stuff.-


	13. Chapter 13

-A/N Again sorry it took awhile for me to update, had some family issues, but I think its mostly all good now so I may be updating more again now. Anyway down to business, there is a song in this chapter, its called _**Into The Night**_, by _**Santana Feat. Chad Kroger**_ and big shocker I don't own it, the rights to it go to Santana blah blah blah. Also Major thanks to _**PianoAngelOfSnow**_ who made my new cover for this story. It was a speed paint so if you go to my profile I'll have a link to it.-

Waning: I can and will most likely swear in this and every chapter, this is the last warning I'm putting in, cause I'm lazy and you shouldn't really need them at this point.

Chapter 13

Silver let out a worried sigh, again, which in turn brought out a chuckle from Lundy who was in the process of combing Silver's fur with her teeth.

"whats so funny?" Silver asked, trying to suppress a laugh of her own

"you wont say it but I know what you and Marrok have been talking about, and now just a few minutes before the celebration is when you pick to start having second thoughts, plus that's probably the eighteenth time you've sighed like that." Lundy teased in between strokes of her fur.

Silver blushed, mostly because Lundy had hit the nail on the head with every word. Tonight was the celebration for the summer solstice. Over the past three days Silver and Marrok had talked in private about whether or not they wanted to have pups now, or wait. All they managed to get done in those talks was decide they we're both nervous about the prospect of it.

Now Lundy and Silver were helping groom each other in Marrok's den, they figured Marrok was just out making sure everything was ready, in truth he left most of that to the elders while he and a few other wolves went down to a lake to bathe and clean themselves up a bit.

Marrok was sitting on the bank of the lake, sun drying after he had cleaned himself. He was staring at the water, deep in thought. He was having an internal debate on the very subject that Silver and Lundy were discussing at the same moment. The part of his mind that loved Silver told him that pups were the next step, but his more rational side told him he knew nothing of being a father and Silver knew nothing of being a mother.

Unknown to him was that the other wolves were watching him, most of them were having a hard time controlling their laughter, their hard as steel, tough as nails leader who took on a bull moose by himself, and whether he would admit it or not he was scared shit-less by that dog. After a bit thought they decided it was time to go. They tried to shout to Marrok but he didn't hear them, lost deep in thought.

So a brave group got a mischievous idea. They crouched low, and slowly crept up on him from behind, Making sure they stayed down wind so as not to alert him. They got right up behind him without him even taking notice, then all at once they jumped forward as one and pushed him off of the bank and into the lake. Marrok flailed about as he flew into the icy water, Having tried off and warmed up he faced the same shock he had last time he had gone in.

"Holy shit!" he shouted, his voice slightly higher as he quickly jumped back up onto the bank.

Marrok stood their shaking and glaring at the wolves before him rolling on the ground with laughter. After a bit they calmed down enough to speak.

"sorry Marrok, we just figured now would be a good time to go, the celebrations are suppose to start soon, and we're all dry now, well at least we were all _dry_." one of them finally explained, his last comment bring on another round of laughter.

"right and I had just finished grooming my fur." Marrok said with a glare.

"yea, um sorry about that, but ah, you can dry off faster if you run back." the same wolf replied nervously

in response Marrok shook the loose water off his fur, dampening the fur of the culprits that had pushed him in. They all jumped as the chilling water hit them.

"You can dry off faster if you run back, in fact you might want to, because I'll be behind you." Marrok said with a smirk.

They didn't waste any time him hoping up and running as Marrok chased in mock pursuit. The entire group arrived out of breath, after a bit they all dispersed to their dens, to wait with their mates and families. Marrok literally dragged his feet on the way to his den.

Stopping by the elders den to make sure they had gotten everything ready, not that it was much, drag a bunch of meat to the center of the field, and drag out the crystal rocks which their clan had round long ago when they first arrived in this valley, hidden deep in the caves. He even tried to talk to his mother, who he hadn't spoken with since he had chosen Silver as his mate. When he tried to though she just glared at him and walked away.

Marrok, not being in the mood to deal with her walked out of the elders den and into his own. He walked in grumbling to himself about his mother, when he saw Silver he stopped mid word and just stared. She looked simply stunning, her fur was groomed and combed so it looked like one solid sheet of soft silver silk that covered her entire body. That mixed with the way the moon was shinning off of her fur took away Marrok's breath, and all the aggression he had felt towards his mother a moment ago had melted away.

_**Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,  
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see, **_

"Silver, I ah, you, your." Marrok started to stutter in shock and awe.

Silver chuckled as she stepped forward and kissed him.

"Sorry, and I was cleaned up to, till some fellows decided I need another bath." Marrok explained with a sheepish grin.

"Fine by me, I kinda like the wild look, I mean, I _did _fall in love with a wolf you know." she teased with a smirk.

_**How the devil himself could be pulled out of me,  
There were drums in the air as she started to dance,  
Every soul in the room keeping time with there hands,  
And we sang… **_

With that they made their way out onto the raised up rocks, when they got their Marrok raised his muzzle to the night sky and howled. Signaling all the others that it was time. Being eager for the celebration all the wolves assembled in record time, and without further delay Marrok began the customary speech regarding all the fallen wolves in the past year, including his father, and Harv, however wolves who were killed as punishment are not mentioned, such as Slouch, and Shiv. As per custom at the end of the speech they all lifted their muzzles to howl in honor of the fallen.

_**Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing…  
Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
**__**And we danced on into the night,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night, **_

Then wolves turned the crystals which had been positioned earlier, turned so that the rough rocky side was facing away from the moon. When turned the crystals reflected the light of the moon in an array of colors across the valley and all the wolves below. With that the celebration started.

Silver looked on at it all in wounder, the six crystals splashed different shades and colors of light across the valley that are all constantly changing. The part that amazed her the most was the way the wolves danced, some more energetic ones jumped all about, twisting and flipping, a few skilled ones even standing on only two legs for awhile. But the majority stayed on all fours, staying right next to their mates and worked with all eight legs in sync.

_**Like a piece to the puzzle that falls into place,  
You could tell how we felt from the look on our faces,  
we was spinning in circles with the moon in our eyes,**_

"care to dance?" Marrok asked, while rubbing his muzzle under her chin.

"I don't know how, I've never even tried to before." Silver said a little embarrassed.

"its easy, just follow my lead." He said with a smirk.

With that he lead her out into the group. Marrok walked around her side and pressed himself up against her, then with that he started to move, slowly at first so she could keep up with ease, then he started to steadily pick up his pace. Silver quickly noticed a few things, one they were moving deeper into the crowd so she pressed herself even closer to him, two she was actually having a lot of fun, and three after she got the hang of it, it was almost like they were just two more drops in an ocean of fur.

_**No room left to move between you and I,  
We forgot where we were and we lost track of time,  
And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night,  
And we sang…**_

A couple of wolves started howling and many others joined in, filling air with their sweet music. Marrok and Silver at times joined their own voices with the on-going chorus. As the night progressed Silver started to feel more and more comfortable, and she would even leave his side from time to time, to look at him face to face and lock their muzzles together as they danced.

_**Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing…  
Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
Ai oh ai oh, **_

Silver blushed when she realized that a few wolves at stopped to watch the two alphas dance.

"Hey Marrok, I think we got an audience." Silver said, a little louder due to the loud howls.

"Don't mind them, their just jealous." Marrok replied with a smirk and another kiss.

Silver took one last look around, at all the wolves who watched, some looked happy about it, some looked upset, others just looked indifferent. But Silver decided, to hell with all of them.

_**And we danced on into the night,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
And we danced on into the night,**_

After awhile Marrok and Silver made their way over to the pile of meat. Once Silver stopped dancing for a moment she realized how dizzy she had become and fell to the ground, pulling Marrok with her. Both of them started laughing and just stayed there for bit, with their paws wrapped around each other.

_**Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,  
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see,  
How the devil himself could be pulled out of me,  
There were drums in the air as she started to dance,  
Every soul in the room keeping time with there hands,  
And we sang…**_

It was then, with them lying their looking into each others eyes that they both decided they didn't give a damn how much they knew about raising pups.

_**Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing…  
Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
And we danced on into the night,**_

They both loved each other deeper then any ocean, as far as either of them cared that was all they needed, without saying anything both of them stood and slipped off back to Marrok's den.

_**Ai oh ai oh,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
And we danced on into the night,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing**_

"Silver are you sure your ready? I don't want you to do this if you don't want to." Marrok asked with a serious look in his eyes.

_**Ai oh ai oh,  
Ai oh ai oh,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
Ai oh ai oh**_

"Marrok you came into my life at the worst possible moment, when everyone I'd ever known was killed, but you know what? What I've found here is more then I could have ever amounted to in any human town, and I don't think I could of found a mate like you anywhere else. If there is one thing I'm sure of, its that I want to have a family with you Marrok." Silver told him before she leaned in to kiss him, then she walked past him inside, brushing her tail under his chin as she went.

Marrok looked after her for a second, before he smiled and followed her.

_**Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
Ai oh ai oh  
Singing Ai oh ai oh ai oh ai,  
Ai oh ai oh  
And we danced on into the night…**_

About an hour later a couple of their friends were looking for them, they finally decided that they might be back in their den and were asking Lundy to go in and look for them.

"Why is it, that whenever you need someone to go in there and check up on them you ask me?" Lundy growled.

She had been trying to lay down and relax with Surge, when a group of wolves had come up to her asking her to poke her head in there and see if they were in there.

"because, if he is in there and one of us were to bug him he would tear our heads off, you he will probably just tease about getting lost." one of the wolves explained

With a groan she got up and walked towards Marrok's den. She quietly walked into the first room. She poked her head into one of the rooms and her eyes got as big as the moon in the sky. She quickly walked out thankful they hadn't seen her. She walked right past the wolves in the group speaking as she went.

"Their busy, don't bug them." was all Lundy said as she went through the group, nudging Surge to follow her.

When they got in front of Lundy's den Surge stopped for a second.

"What's up?" he asked her.

"I saw something that made me realize that tonight is a good night." Lundy hinted

"um what?" Surge asked completely clueless.

"we may be wolves but lets be copy cats for a bit?" Lundy tried

"er no I'm a wolf." Surge said still lost.

Lundy sighed and started pushing him back into the den mumbling something about it being a good thing he looks good. Once they got in if anyone had been standing out side they would of heard one thing.

"oooh, that's what you meant." Surge said dumbly.

-A/N probably could have been better considering I'm half asleep and worked on this on and off for about four hours. Also I decided to end it with a bit of humor. Anyway hope you liked it.-


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Silver lay bored in the den she shared with Marrok, using her claws to scratch a single horizontal line in front of her nose over and over again, trying to amuse herself by seeing how much of the stone she could wear away. It had been roughly a month since she had mated with Marrok, at first she hadn't wanted to eat at all now she found her self eating almost _twice_ the normal amount. She was also constantly changing her mind on things, it was frustrating to those around her and infuriating to herself.

But to Silver the worst part was that both her and Marrok had decided it best if she didn't go on any more tasks outside the valley, at first she had been very reluctant, not wanting to spend time just laying around or to seem like she was getting off easy on her normal tasks. Marrok pointed out that most if not all the females that are pregnant stay in the valley and finally Silver had agreed.

She spent most of her time trying to relax, (to no avail) talking with Lundy, or talking to one of the females of the pack who had had pups before so she would know what to expect, the general consensus being hell with an indescribable joy after of being a parent. Silver jumped slightly when she heard the clicking of claws on stone coming into the den, soon after Marrok poked his head around the corner with two large chunks of meat clenched between his teeth. He quickly walked in dropped the meat and nuzzled Silver.

"So how are you doing today my sweet?" He asked with a broad smile

"extremely, completely, absolutely bored" she pouted while putting on her best puppy dog eyes.

"then you will probably hate me for saying that this will last for at least another two months, then we also have to watch them." he teased with a chuckle

"yea yea, but at least after that month I can leave while _you_ stay home and watch them." she shot back while stretching.

"I'd be happy to, but for now lets eat." Marrok said beckoning to the meat.

Silver nodded and they both indulged themselves in their meal. Even though Silver had the lager chunk of meat she devoured hers before Marrok finished his own. Marrok couldn't help but let out another chuckle at how quickly she scarfed down the meal, causing Silver to playfully shove him.

After Marrok finished his own they both padded out to lay in the sun on the rocky ledge. They had only gone a short ways out of their den when they were stopped by Marrok's mother.

"Marrok we need to talk, _in private_." She sneered the last part while looking at Silver.

"What ever you with to say to me mother you can say in front of my mate." Marrok stated, trying to keep his voice calm.

"fine, if that is what you wish. I think you've dragged out your little game for far to long, its time to get rid of this _dog_ before we have little half-breed curs running around." She snarled at him.

Marrok was up right in front of her in an instant, he had to angle his head down to look her in the eye as he spoke through bared teeth.

"bite your tongue! _she_ is my _mate_ and _they _are my_ pups_, there is no '_game_' I love her with all my heart with will defend her to my last breath! And further more she is your _alpha_ female and _you_ _will_ respect her as such!." Marrok growled while his mother visibly flinched and started to back away.

"no! No I will not! I know damn well that you hate me for what I did, for that I do not blame you but I will not show any respect to this petty dog or whatever fucked up pups that she will birth. So I demand now that you make a choice, either you kill me or kill that dog." she yelled at him while tears started to slowly crawl down the side of her face.

"as you wish." Marrok whispered so quietly that Silver barely caught it.

Marrok's face darkened as he moved forward, quickly striking out with one paw sending his mother to the ground. He quickly picked her up by the scruff of her neck and began dragging her across the valley, all the way she flailed and screamed curses at Marrok and Silver who slowly followed behind. By the time Marrok had reached the main way in and out of the valley his mother's yelling had drawn a crowed, all of whom stayed father back then Silver, all except Lundy who went to Silver's side. Marrok roughly threw his mother to the small cave that Silver had first entered the valley from.

"Fatum*, member of the elders council I, Marrok Alpha of this pack, hereby banish you from the Shadow Valley clan and all land we control, If ever you return every wolf will have orders to kill you on sight. The only reason I haven't killed you on this day is out of what respect I did once have for you, do not waste my gift and go, go and never return to this land." Marrok bellowed the words loud enough for the entire group to hear.

"no, no don't you do this. Choose the damned mutts if you want but don't banish me, just kill me, kill me or one day I will return after you have come to love those pups and watch them grow, and on that day I will kill them and forever take them from you!"

Marrok quickly grabbed her by the back of her neck with his paw, "if ever you return and prove a threat to my mate or pups I will end you myself, now, _leave you are not welcome here ever again_." with the last word Marrok threw her once more to the tunnel, this time she ran into it, forever leaving the Shadow Valley clan.

Quickly after this the entire crowed dispersed, none of them wanting to get I Marrok's way. But as big, powerful and intimidating as Marrok always seemed, on that night Silver held him while his tears flowed across his fur. Even after all Fatum did, she was still his mother.

-A/N kinda sad (at least I think so) but anyway thanks to Mojotheomegawolf for the name 'Fatum'. I'll try to update soon (maybe even later today) cause this one was shorter then the normal chapters.-


	15. Chapter 15

-A/N I'm so sorry for the long update time, some major family issues and honestly I was just not in the mood to write through the entire thing, the worst is over now so I'm trying to get back to this. I also figured I should take a moment to explain a few things, first all these chapters aren't quite the story, this has, and still is the prologue of sorts, the actual main character hasn't even shown up yet, I decided to say this for 2 reasons, 1 I estimated this would take about 30 chapters, so far this is number 15 and I still have along way to go so I'm guessing a little higher now, 2 this is taking longer then I thought to build this up and I don't want people to be confused in the next few chapters. Anyway here it is-

Chapter 15

"Are you sure your alright? I can tell them to go without me." Marrok asked again, a look of worry across his face.

"I told you, I'm fine, just a bit of bad morning sickness or something, don't worry, go with the hunting party I'll be here when you get back." Silver assured him with a weary smile.

Marrok had awoken to Silver on her back, holding her stomach in great pain with her teeth and eyes clenched tight. Marrok couldn't get her to snap out of it for a few minutes, and when she did she snapped up and puked just about everything she had eaten, now she couldn't bring herself to eat anything at all.

"alright, I'll go, but I'm going to ask Lundy and Surge to come by and check on you every now and again." Marrok stated while leaning down to nuzzle her.

Silver silently returned the nuzzle while nodding. She went to the mouth of the den to watch him go till his tail vanished out the small entrance. She laid there for a while more, when she stood to retreat to the cool air of the cave, she stopped for a moment to look at her descending belly, full of pups it had sagged quite noticeably in the two months that had passed since the summer solstice.

She was about to turn into the cave when she was over come with a sudden heat, deciding it was just the hot sun she made her way down to the lake for a drink. Just as she reached the slope that led down from the caves she was hit by sudden contractions, her entire body clenched and she lost her footing.

Silver couldn't believe this was happening, she was tumbling down the slop slamming against the many rocks on the way down, till finally she came to a halt flat on her stomach, she could feel something being hit around inside her. Silver didn't even have the strength to get up, so she rolled over already panicked that she had hurt her puppies from the fall.

"what th- Silver!" Surge shouted as he ran down the slope.

He helped her to her feet with the help of another male he had been talking with. Between them they helped her back up to her den.

"Shard, go get Lundy, I'm going to go see if I can catch the hunting pack." Surge told the other male, both running off.

Shard ran around the corner yelling for Lundy to come quickly. After what was only seconds but seemed like ages to Silver Lundy was next her, telling her something that she couldn't quite make out in her panicked state.

"Silver! Silver are you listening?" Lundy shouted finally breaking through.

"w-what?" Silver panted, still confused but at least able to listen.

"I said your going into labor. You need to relax and get ready to push." Lundy instructed

"I hope Marrok gets here soon." Lundy whispered to herself.

Marrok was still having second thoughts about leaving Silver alone. Well she wouldn't really be _alone_ in a valley full of wolves, with several he had asked to check up on here periodically. But he would rather he was there with her.

So far the hunt itself was uneventful, as most were in the beginning, just a tangled mess of scents. This was the most boring and yet tense part of the hunt. This was the time of a lull in any action, merely walking and sniffing, trying to untangle the web of scents that filled the air, this was also the time of the uncertainty. With all the scents in the area tangled around them for this short time they had no idea what could be lurking in the shadows, waiting for the chance to strike and tear them to shreds.

That is why the group was split into to parts for this part of the hunt, half were sniffing around trying to pick up a trail, the other half were watching every shadow, listening to every sound and taking in every little detail. At the sign of the slightest movement the entire group would halt, at the first sign of a threat they would all prepare to attack first ask questions later, _maybe_.

At the first sign of a threat greater then they could handle, they would all run like hell in every direction, none leading back to the den until they were sure they were not being followed, else they better hope they're killed by whoever followed them, because then they would have to deal with Marrok. However there was still one hole in this system that was about to be pointed out to the hunting party. When they are as close as they were to the den, they didn't bother to watch their back, thus the entire group was scared shit-less when Surge came running from the den like a bat out of hell yelling unintelligible words in his winded panic. Marrok calmed him enough to make him stop and take a deep breath, before-

"Marrok! You need to come quickly, S-silver she, I don't know I think she fell I'm not quite sure I-I just found her, she was hurt and, and now she is going into labor! L-Lundy said to come get you, I'm so sorry, I was just going to go check on here I know you told me to keep and eye on her but you had just left and I was just going when-" Surge stopped rambling there when he realized Marrok had left as soon as he said Silver was hurt.

Surge sat there for a moment, staring blankly at the hunting party sitting in front of him giving him an array of confused and quizzical looks. Surge flashed them a smile and did what he did best, ran. Unsure of what to do he was headed back after Marrok. The hunting party took a moment to discuss what to do, they went back to hunting, hoping the inevitable shit-storm would've calmed by the time they got back.

Marrok darted through the woods, cutting it close enough to feel tree bark brush his fur. He reached the tunnel in less then two minutes, he ran through it so fast he didn't even notice when he cut his back against the top of the tunnel, that or he just didn't care. He flew across the valley, ignoring the questions and looks of wolves wondering what he was doing back so soon without the rest of the hunters. As he made his way up the slope to the caves Lundy tried to stop him.

"Marrok p-please wait, you have to understand! We tried everything we could, we just, we couldn't-" he didn't let her finish, roughly pushing past her into the cave.

Marrok stopped for a second just before going in. Surge was stumbling over his words as if he thought Marrok was going to strike him down after hearing them, from what he had gathered she had been hurt, and then went into labor. The thing that bothered him the most, was Lundy, his best friend since he was a pup, he had always marveled at how she was the only wolf who was never intimated by him, was the only one who could annoy and pester him without him threatening them, and yet just now outside, she look as if she was terrified of him, like death himself had approached to claim her very soul.

Marrok let out a shaky breath then took another deep one. He rounded the corner and went straight to the 'room' were Silver lay. He took it all in and his breath caught in his throat, his heart stopped and he could feel a tear coming to his eye.

-A/N OK this part may take awhile, I just wanted to say thank you, the the 113 people who have read my story so far, with a total of 1317 views, so thank you to the 79 people in the United States, the 7 people in Sweden, the 9 people in the United Kingdom, the 2 people from the Dominican Revar, the 7 people in Canada, the 1 person in Chile, the 2 from Australia, the 1 person on the Faeroe Islands, the 1 person from Peru, the 1 Person from Singapore, the 1 person in Finland, the 1 person in Denmark and lastly the 1 person in Germany, but I give the biggest thanks of all to KodiWolf321 and MojoTheOmegaWolf for constantly reviewing, thank you all so much, its probably the only reason I still write this and I really hope each of you are enjoying it! Also I'll try to update more but I've started school again so I don't know how well that will go over but I'll try to keep it up better then I have been.-


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Marrok stood in shock and awe, before him was his mate, nuzzling five tiny new born pups. He was fascinated by the site of them, _his_ pups, they were so small compared to him he wondered how he was ever that tiny. He swallowed and walked forward, startling Silver she looked up at him, and he was caught of guard by her face, it wasn't the look of wary happiness he would have been expecting, but more of a worn out sorrow look on her face. Tear streaks discolored her fur in different crisscrossing lines going down her muzzle and face. Marrok had just opened his mouth to say something, anything when she spoke.

"Marrok, they d-didn't make it." Her voice was strained and she faltered half way through before breaking into tears again.

Marrok mumbled something to himself, denying to himself that his pups didn't survive. He quickly shook his head snapping himself out of it, he was the _Alpha_ of one of the largest wolf packs for miles, he doesn't deny things, he makes them the way he wants them with force or by using his head. He ran across to silver nuzzling her and assuring her all would be well, then without words they both set to the task of gently nuzzling and licking the puppies to get their breathing to start.

They worked for what felt like days to put life into their children, just as Marrok started to panic, to _fear_ that his young were lost, when suddenly a girl with a gray body and black head, looking as if she wore a ski mask, suddenly inhaled and gave a small cough before continuing to breath. That one breath, that little cough gave them both renewed vigor. They worked faster then before, hoping her brothers and sisters would follow suit.

After about twenty minutes the smallest pup, his fur was a soft silver looking cover, almost white, but around his eyes, mouth and his entire underside was black as the night sky, he also had black socks on his front legs that almost reached his shoulders, on his back legs they only went about half-way up. Marrok quickly nosed him next to his sister, who was drinking from their mother's underside. They continued their work for another fifteen minutes, when Silver stopped.

"Marrok" was all she managed, her voice strained.

Marrok ignored her and kept licking, he knew what she was going to say.

"Marrok, please."

No, he couldn't, he wouldn't let it be.

"Marrok, please stop..."

If he hadn't been licking one of the pups he would of begged her not to say it.

"...Marrok, its over, their gone."

That was all it took, he lost it. He burst into tears and buried his face in Silvers neck.

"After everything I've done, I couldn't even save my own pups, Its my fault, I should have been here, I...I" He had already calmed himself down some, he just kept letting out shuttering breaths and nuzzling his beloved mate.

"Marrok, your wrong, you saved two of your puppies, and I'm the one who fell, If its anyone's fault its-

"Don't you dare think that for a minute, you're the last person at fault for this my love."

"then your own words settle it, no one is at fault here."

Marrok nodded, resting his head against Silver's while looking down at his two pups. Out of a litter of five three had fallen before they could even stand.

The next morning after being looked at by Lundy they would find that they were weakened from it all, and might not make it, regardless Marrok and Lundy kept their hopes high, that day they named the puppies, they named the girl Bandit for her ski mask like appearance, Silver came up with the name Caelum for the boy, she said it was 'Latin' an old human language which one of her owners had studied. The word meant 'Sky' or 'Heaven', it may sound foolish, but it always brought comfort to her. Three weeks later Bandit died.

-A/N short I know but they will be getting longer once I get to the real story, they will also not be so rushed and will have more detail.-


	17. Chapter 17

-A/N YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAY 3 chapters in less then a week, I'm on a roll! Also this one takes place about two months after the Caelum was born.-

Chapter 17

A small black pup with a single white spot on her chest was running through the trees, she stopped in a clearing and looked around her, realizing she had lost her friend. She sat to wait for him, hoping he would catch up soon, unknown to her in a nearby bush, a predator watched, waiting for the chance. The black pup turned to look to her right, thinking she heard her friend approach, but she was soon let down when only a small rabbit hopped from the brush.

She was about to turn away when a sudden gust of wind blew across the clearing, brushing across the rabbit's ears before gliding across the pups face, her small nose twitched at the smells it brought, it took her a minute to place them all, most of them being just the wood land and the rabbit, but the two that struck her the most was the smell of her friend, and an odd metallic smell that normally came from her food, she thought her mother had told her it was called 'blood'.

The pup took a closer look at the rabbit that was now scratching itself, when it sat back up she saw a streak of blood across its back, not like it was bleeding, but like it was brushed by someone that was. While she was watching the rabbit she felt a warm gust of wind push up the fur on the back of her neck, she shook it off and kept looking, but stopped when she remembered, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.

Before she could turn she was tackled to the ground, the blow was only glancing but it was powerful enough to knock her off balance. She fell forward, twisting her body as she went to land on her back and get a look at her attacker, who was rolling on the ground laughing.

"You should of seen your face!" the 'attacker' told her while clutching his sides.

"wha-? Cael! You ass! You scared me half to death!" she growled as she got up to go over and shove him playfully.

"Aw come on don't be like that Moon, not even going to ask how I did it?" Cael asked with a sly smile.

"No...maybe...oh just tell me." Moon relented while he mock begged.

"It didn't work quite how I wanted, first I had to get way ahead of you so I took a short cut while you went the long way, then I had to catch the rabbit without hurting him, now that was a pain, so after I caught him I cut my paw a little to smear some blood on him." he held up his paw with a small cut on it to show "I was hoping he would just hop around a bit and surround you with the smell of it, I thought the plan was done for when you saw him, but it confused you for a bit while I snuck up on ya from the bushes over there." Cael rattled off proudly while pointing to the bushes.

"yea? Well you pounce almost missed and I wasn't even moving."

"At least I didn't pee myself." Cael through back while pointing under her.

Moon's eyes got wide as she looked down in shock, to find Cael had been lying. He quickly moved his paw out and gave her a little tap on the nose, a canine version of the hey-you-got-something-on-your-shirt gag if you will.

"Got ya!" he said triumphantly once more.

"ooooh your dead this time!" Moon said as she pounced at him.

They playfully wrestled around in the grass for awhile, rolling, letting out little barks and yips as they lightly bit each other on their legs and ears. This ensued for a few minutes until-

"Moon! Cael! Time to eat!" Silver called out from across the valley at the den.

Both wolf pups jumped up and ran out of the cluster of trees that filled one corner of the valley they all called home. They ran into the den and barreled right into a surprised Marrok, this brought a round of laughter from Silver, Lundy and Surge. Cael and Moon back up a little with sheepish grins while Marrok just shook his head mumbling something about people would think they starved these guys. Cael looked around for a second before asking the question that both he and Moon had on their minds.

"Where's Baku and Haze?"

"They should be right-" Surge started as two more pups ran in and tackled Moon and Cael.

"Here!" they shouted in union.

Baku and Haze were Moon's two brothers and only other kin, they were born about two weeks after Cael who was born prematurely, he still didn't know what exactly that meant or why all his siblings had died, and for that matter why he survived. Baku and Haze got their looks from their father, Baku had a dark red coat, except for a dark yellow circle around his right eye, Haze's coat was dark yellow with a dark red circle around his left eye. That and the fact they were almost always with each other had earned them the nick-name the Yin-Yang brothers.

Cael didn't like being knocked over like that, so he twisted himself around to he was facing up at Baku who was staring at him wondering what he was doing. Baku soon found out when Cael struck out with both his hind legs, flipping Baku over his head and onto his back. Haze sensing a wrestling game jumped at Cael, who easily dodged, twisted his head and grabbed Haze's hind leg as it went by with it he pulled Haze on top of his brother and jumped onto both of them.

"I win!" Cael declared while Baku and Haze grumbled about him cheating and being to heavy.

Moon who had been left on the sidelines until now pounced on Cael's back, completing the puppy pile.

"Correction, _I_ win!" she said easily while sitting on Cael's back, adding more wait to the already flattened Baku and Haze.

"no fair! I did all the work!" Cael complained as Moon hopped off.

"true, you did a remarkable display of strength for a pup you age, but should always remember, mind over matter son, mind over matter." Silver said with a chuckle as the pups ran over to the meat.

Most of the meal was taken by silence, sprinkled with some small talk between Marrok, Silver, Surge and Lundy. After the meal the pups were told to go to sleep, they tried to argue it for five minutes, three of those minutes was spent yawning and fighting off sleep, eventually they relented and slowly padded off to the back room, recently Surge, Lundy and their pups had been living Cael and Silver, at first it was so Lundy could help watch Cael, but then it became more convenient since they and their pups got along, and Lundy's den was more for storage then raising pups. Once the pups had gone to sleep the adults went to talk for a few minutes, finally the topic reached the subject of Caelum, and how much he had changed physically.

"Honestly Marrok, I don't know how it happened, but somehow Cael has grown to be bigger and stronger then most pups, being born in the conditions he was he should have been smaller and weaker at the least, I was surprised he could even walk at first. I just don't get it, he was the smallest of the litter, Bandit was on the largest." Lundy said shaking her head.

"What happened to Bandit?" Cael ask sleepily from the entrance to the room catching all the wolves off guard.

"uh, well, you see, you and your siblings were born pre-" Marrok started to explain, not for the first time

"prematurely due to an accident, after all five of us were born you could only get me and Bandit to breath, but later Bandit died like my other bothers and sisters. I know all that, you've told me that every time I've asked, but you also never explained it, I don't know what any of that means da." Cael surprised them again by not only cutting off Marrok, but by how bothered he seemed by this, when he even said he didn't know what it meant.

"alright, lets start from the begging then, your father already told you were puppies come from and you understand that right?" Silver asked, deciding he had a right to know.

Cael made a disgusted face and nodded, he had made the mistake of asking his father that question roughly a week ago, it was not something he wanted remember.

"OK then, you see about two weeks before you were born, I fell and landed on my stomach, this caused you and your siblings to be born early, at the time your father had just left to go hunting, well Lundy helped me through it and I got you all out, but none of you were breathing. Right about then your father showed up, with his help we managed to get only two pups breathing out of five, you, who at the time was the smallest of the litter, and your sister, who was quite a bit larger. Understand so far?" Silver explained, starting to tear up a little from the memory of it.

Cael just nodded, unsure of why his mother was crying.

"Well, at the time you and your sister were weakened from being born to early, and from me falling, we don't know exactly why, but one morning about five days after you were born Bandit just stopped breathing, we tried to get her going again, but she died, then for what ever reason you suddenly started improving, now you've grown to be on of the biggest and strongest pups in the entire clan. OK?"

"no, not quite mother, all you told me was that their dead, and you told me that when someone dies, they go away, so why doesn't Bandit just come back? Or why can't we just go get her?" Cael didn't know why, but he missed Bandit.

"Son, when someone dies, they stop living, their body is here, but their spirit is gone. They can't come back, and we can't bring them back, at one point or another everyone dies, like the animals I hunt for food, like your grandparents." Marrok explained, wincing at the last part, they had decided to just tell Cael that his grandmother had died as well.

Cael's face fell as his father told him his sister was gone, and couldn't come back. Silently Lundy and Surge got up and went to the room were their three pups were sleeping to rest for the night. Cael's mother motioned to Cael to come over and sleep with them for the night. He crawled over and laid him self between his parents, feeling safe in their warmth he slowly drifted off to sleep. Unknown to them, tomorrow nothing would ever be the same again.

-A/N dun dun DUUUN!-


	18. Chapter 18 The End

-A/N going to try to update at least once a week now if not more, also this is the end of the into-prolog-setup-thingy, and also I'm going to start naming chapters now, theres not reason to it I just think it'd be nice-

Chapter 18, The End

Marrok awoke before Silver or Cael that morning, he was careful not to move around to much to avoid waking either of them, silently thinking to himself '_he sleeps just like his mother, a rock_.' Marrok finally managed to carefully edge his way away from them enough to stand up and stretch, while he had his head down stretching his back he felt something scurry up onto his back, '_maybe not such a rock after all_.' Marrok stood, turning his head to look at a sleepy Cael balancing on his back with a weary smile.

Marrok padded out of the cave towards the shallow lake, careful to make sure Cael stayed in his back. Marrok laid down in the grass to let his son hop off so they could both get a drink. Cael looked up to see a group of pups playing while their parents watched from the shade of a tree, this sight brought a question to mind.

"H-hey da, can I ask you something?"

Marrok turned his head toward him giving him a quizzical look.

"Why don't I look like you and mom?"

"What do you mean? You have silver fur like your mother, and black fur like my own." Marrok said hoping to avoid this, he knew what his son meant.

"No not that, well yea I mean I do but that's not what I mean, mom doesn't look like any of the other wolves in the pack, and I don't look quite like any of them either, but I also don't look like mom, and I don't mean fur, I mean like, like I don't know." He let out a sigh and looked down at his reflection in the water.

"I know what you mean son, I'm just not quite sure how to explain it." Marrok admitted with a sigh of his own.

"Then how about you do what you and mom always tell me, 'just tell the truth'." Cael said as he sat down and tilted his head slightly in curiosity, Marrok nodded.

"Alright then, fair enough. Wolves are very very similar to another animal, called a 'dog' we are in fact so similar we can have pups together. Around a year ago I found your mother in the woods, she was indeed a dog, while most wolves would of liked to either kill her or leave her out there to die, I was and still am the alpha, so when she asked to stay, I said yes. More then a few wolves displayed their distaste for this choice, a small group even tried to attack us. Your mother and I grew close quickly, and eventually we had you." Marrok explained, his eyes downcast, not sure what his son would think of this.

"So, what does that make me?" Cael asked after a moment.

"your half wolf, and half dog, your a wolf-dog. There is a pretty good chance that some might not like this about you later in life son, if you ever meet anyone like this, to hell with them, if someone thinks less of you because your heritage then they don't matter." Marrok said, as he leaned down to nuzzle Cael.

Cael leaned forward to return his fathers nuzzle, before he jumped up, putting one paw in front of him and leaning forward.

"race you back to the den?" Cael asked, his tail wagging so much his backside shook.

Marrok chuckled and nodded, getting into position himself.

"Ready? Set? Go!" Marrok shouted.

As they ran Marrok had to slow himself down to give the small pup a chance to win, though in the end it didn't matter. As soon as they reached the den Cael jumped on his mother who was laying near the entrance waiting for them to get back, Marrok joined the pile himself and the three wrestle playfully for a few minutes. Later when Lundy, Surge and their pups woke up the pups went outside to play while the parents watched from atop the raised rocks in front of their den.

They'd been playing all day in the valley and were still at it as if they had just gotten up. The sun was half way down the horizon casting an orange glow over the valley. Cael was running up hill to get away from Baku who was trying to pounce on him, as he was 'it' in a game similar to tag but with pouncing. Cael glanced behind him to see how far back Baku was, to see he had stopped completely with his eyes wide, Cael turned around to see what he was looking at when he slammed head first into it.

While rubbing his head with one paw he looked up at a scruffy looking older female wolf, who looked under fed and stared at him with hate filled eyes as she growled.

"so, you must the the worthless little cur himself." she growled.

Half way across the valley Marrok happened to look up to see something that for the second time today he wished he hadn't. He didn't wait a moment, he jumped straight from his position laying down, he sailed over the rock ledge and down into the valley bellow, hitting the ground running he bolted across the valley towards Cael. Silver looked up in shock wondering what he was doing, when she saw Cael sitting in front of Fatum. Silver ran down the side path, running not to far behind Marrok, with Surge and Lundy in tow of them.

"Cael! Get away from her!" Marrok bellowed as he continued to run.

Cael started to back away from her when she reached her paw out to him, with her claws extended. At this point Cael didn't need his da to tell him she was bad, he leached forward and sank his teeth into her paw, he violently shook his head from side to side to tear it open. In both pain in surprise she flung her paw off to the side, throwing Cael down the hill. Cael's tumble came to a sudden stop against his fathers leg. Fatum opened her mouth to snarl and growl at her son and grandson, but all they heard was a loud blast followed by a wet, cracking sound as her head exploded.

"Humans." Marrok whispered in shock and disbelief.

Around them every adult canine in the valley whispered the same thing, suddenly Marrok ushered all the pups in the area to the back of the valley, they tried to move quickly and quietly. They had barely started this process when a chorus of aggressive loud barking rang throughout the valley, followed by another gun shot, a wolf who had been helping Marrok fell the the ground dead with a hole in its back. With that panic broke out, Marrok rallied a group of wolves to stay back while others got the pups to a hidden exit in the back of the valley.

Cael risked a glance back, he saw 2 tall figures standing on top of the hill he was on only moments ago, they held some strange sticks that kept making the loud bangs, with each bang either a wolf fell or dirt shot up into the air. Bellow them on the hill was a group of dogs running down to meet the charging forward group of wolves, Marrok was in that group along with Surge and most the other males in the pack. Cael was intent on watching them all battle, the dogs out numbered the wolves but Marrok was tearing through dogs fast, eventually four of them ganged up on him and he still took them all on while barely getting a scratch on him.

"Scatter!" Cael wasn't sure who said it but he and most everyone else listened, running away from their current location just as a class bottle hit were they stood just moments ago. Once the bottle hit Cael watched, amazed as it exploded into fire and heat washed over him. His amazement turned to horror when he saw a few unlucky wolves hadn't moved fast enough and were now engulfed in flame.

While Marrok was fighting off the group of dogs one broke the line of wolves and snuck around to try and get at Marrok from behind, has as he was about to pounce Silver slammed onto him and tore out his throat. Marrok just glanced back, barely suppressing a smile. Slowly the wolves pushed the dogs back up the hill towards the two humans, one of which was smacking the side of his rifle cursing at it for 'being jammed'. When the wolves were almost to the humans the one who had been cursing at his rifle suddenly got a stroke of luck, he took aim at the large black and gray wolf who was pushing through their dogs with ease, as soon as he was in his scope, he fired.

She didn't know why but it felt right, Silver pushed Marrok onto his side at the last second and moved forward herself. After another blast from the humans rifle she felt a burning sensation in her side, then a warmth seeping across the same side that was burning. She fell the the ground, a hole ripped into her side that was flowing blood rapidly.

"n-no, no! S-silver! Get up! Look at me! Silver!" Marrok shouted, slamming a dog off to the side as he went to the wounded Silver.

"M-Marrok, make sure Cael has a good life, t-tell him I love him, and I love you Marrok, t-the short time I was with you was the happiest of my life, good bye my lo-" Her last word was cut off as a wet gurgle escaped her throat and she died.

'shes dead' Marrok thought to himself 'shes dead, shes gone.' Marrok felt a bullet slam into his shoulder, staggering him back. He looked up at the human who shot him, it was him, the same one, the one who killed Silver '_bastard! You will pay with your life!_' Marrok bolted forward, literally running over a few dogs and knocking others off to the side. He was bit and shot several times as he made his way up, pouncing on the human who shot Silver, sending both of them falling back onto one of the two sleds the humans and dogs showed up and and smashing part of it.

Marrok mauled the human, using his claws to tear him to shreds, the other human had turned and fired at him several times, but he was past that at this point, he knew he was going to die, but he was going to take this worthless bastard with him. Finally the human shot Marrok in the neck and knocked him off the bloody mess that had killed Silver. Against everything Marrok stood up again, and slowly moved towards the second human, one of his legs which had been shot several times hung limply behind him as he moved forward. The human after shacking off his shock leveled his rifle with Marrok's head, and fire one last time.

Cael was alone, shacking and crying by the lake were he had stood with his father just a few hours ago, and now he just saw both his mother and father killed in a matter of minutes. After the group scattered from the fire he had ran to hide next to a tree by the lake, the others had either been killed or had all ran to the woods were he and Moon had played many times. Slowly the dogs made their way towards the woods, with their noses on the ground, eventually they would be found and killed. For reasons unknown Cael suddenly remembered yesterday when he had pulled a prank on moon, he had used a distraction, a rabbit to take her attention else were. Now the rest of the pack needed a rabbit, so they could make the short sprint to one of the few exits, Cael decided he would be their rabbit.

Cael ran from his hiding spot, making as much noise as he could to get the attention of all the dogs. Cael made his way to the human, hoping it would draw more attention, he weaved erratically from side to side to try and throw off his aim. His plan worked a little to well, every dog turned to chase him, wanting to claim the next kill. Cael reached the human and did the first thing he could think of, he bit his foot, but to his surprise he only got a mouth full of the humans leather boot. The human didn't waste a second in knocking Cael off his boot with the butt of his rifle before kicking him in the side. Cael wasn't sure exactly what happened, but he heard and felt a crack in his ribs. He weakly got up and walked back to the human, he knew he couldn't even hurt this creature, but he needed to distract them for as long as possible.

The human kicked at him again, Cael tried to dodge but it still clipped his muzzle, ripping his lip open. When Cael got up for the third time the human laughed, he leaned over and picked him up, keeping his muzzle clamped shut in his massive hand. The human said something about a gluten for punishment before he hogged tied Cael with some rope, pulling it so tight it burned across his skin. By this time all the dogs had arrived and were trying to snap at Cael till the human yelled for them to go back to searching. Unknown to the human and dogs, Cael had seen the wolves run out to the cave, he wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Moon stop for a second and lock eyes with him. The human tossed him carelessly on the sled that hadn't been smashed and didn't have a dead body on it.

The human made the dogs look around the valley for about another two hours, checking the woods and every cave, sadly they found a den with a female wolf and five pups, Cael could do nothing but watch while the dogs laughed and tore them all apart, leaving nothing but bits of fur and blood stained snow. Once the human was satisfied he called all the dogs back, they came with two sleds, each one held one human with supplies while seventeen dogs pulled it. Out of the thirty-four dogs they had came with six-teen had been killed along with the other human, and his sled had been broken. The surviving human found a simple answer to the problem, he looked over all the dogs, after finding the one with the most extensive injuries he shot it once in the head, then he harnessed the rest of the dogs to the sled.

Before he left the human grabbed a crate full of brown bottles with cloths sticking out the top, much like the one Cael saw explode into fire. The human lit them one at a time before throwing them out into the alley, aiming for groups of trees or dead grass to keep it burning. He grabbed a few wolves that weren't to badly mangled and tossed them on the sled before leaving.

They traveled all night, and most of the morning before coming up to a large clearing with a cabin in the center. The human ignored Cael for awhile, releasing the dogs, feeding them and giving them water, taking the dead wolves inside along with some gear from the sled. Finally he came out and grabbed a length of rope tied to the rope that Cael was bound with, and dragged him into the cabin, he went to a far corner of the house in a room filled with dog cages, he tossed Cael onto a pile of useless furs he had collected over the years, to beat up to sell or trade.

Cael just lay there all day, silently crying from all he'd been through. That night after the human fell asleep after drinking some of those odd brown bottles, a group of dogs approached Cael, after looking at them Cael realized they hadn't been with the group that had attacked his home. After looking at him for sometime they finally spoke.

"well hi there, a few of our ah, 'room mates' have been talking about you, think we can untie ya with out you nipping at us?" one of them joked.

Cael just looked at him, unable to speak, not that he would of said anything anyway.

The one who had spoken nodded, reaching out he clawed the ropes will they fell away, Cael quickly stood and backed away from them.

"please, just leave me alone." Cael whimpered.

"hey, hey! Relax we're not the ones who are going to hurt you, we don't know exactly what happens when they go out, we're more guard dogs, we stay here to watch over the house while they go hunting. Your the first thing they ever brought back alive really." the same dog spoke again, convincing Cael he was the leader of the group.

"T-they killed my parents, and friends right in front of me." Cael whined before he broke down crying again.

"what? That's horrible, I'm so sorry little guy, do you have a name?" the leader asked innocently.

After a moments hesitation Cael nodded, "my names Caelum, but I prefer to be called Cael." he said slowly, despite it all the young pup found himself trusting the seemingly nice dog.

"Cael huh? Hey books! How do we spell that?" the dog asked a smaller dog behind him.

The smaller dog gave a small grunt as he went through a few of the numerous books stacked around the room. Finally he came back with one, an hold leather book, it was a Latin dictionary. After a bit of flipping the smaller dog pointed to a word on the page, Cael had no idea what the symbols meant, nor that he was starring at his own name. The leader dog nodded after studying the word for a bit, he casually reached out and grabbed Cael, pinning him to the ground on his stomach, the holder dog then moved forward a bit so he was sitting on Cael's back.

"you see I know your name, but others might not, that's why dogs wear collars, but since your a mangy little wolf, you don't get a collar, so I'll help out the best way I can, by engraving your name into your neck." the leader dog said calmly.

Without another word the dog used his claws the carve 'C A E L' into the back of his neck, deep enough to leave a scar for sure. Once he was done he stood up and left with the other dogs while they laughed at what they had done to the pup. For the rest of the night Cael just laid there while blood flowed out the back of his neck and across his body. This was only the start of a hell that would last for the next year and a half.

a scrawny looking two year old wolf-dog woke up after yet another nightmare, sadly he woke up to a real life nightmare. For almost a year and a half years he had been kept here, hardly ever fed but when he was he was only fed meat the human had no use for, and for the first six months he was here he was fed the same wolves he was brought here with. He was beaten everyday by either the human or the dogs, sometimes both.

Last night he was chained to a pole outside the human had put up just to tie him to while he hit him, and for whatever reason while the human was tending to a dog who had cut his leg open on a piece of scrap metal Cael tilted his head back and howled, the human quickly grabbed a pipe and made him stop, the force of the blows had not only cut open his face, but also internally damaged his tear glands. Later that night when Cael had been tossed back inside on his 'bed' of rotting skins of wolves, a human sheriff showed up to give the human a notice to enter premise on account of animal abuse, saying many people from the nearby town of Nome had heard animal cries coming from his property.

This morning the human had an idea, he was going to kill the wolf-dog before the sheriff showed up to get rid of any evidence. He grabbed an old pistol he owned before going over to were Cael lay. When the human approached Cael did the only thing he could do, he looked up at him hoping whatever he was going to do wouldn't hurt that bad. To his surprise the human pulled out a gun and pointed it at him, for the longest time the human had actually gone through some trouble to keep him alive so he would have something to do while he wasn't hunting.

Cael didn't even care at this point, he'd been through so much that this was almost welcome. The human was still drunk from the night before, plus he was kneeling over and rocking back and forth, his first shot caught Cael in the midsection, that first shot was his wake up call, suddenly his mind flashed with images of his parents, of Lundy and Surge, of Baku and Haze, and most of all of Moon. With a sudden burst of strength Cael lashed out at the man, tearing his claws across the back of his calf and sending the man tumbling backwards, in his confusion the man pulled the trigger as he fell, unloading the second shot into his own head.

Cael had barely let out a breath when he remembered, he was still shot, and now in a house full of dogs that would surely kill him for this once the found out. He began to wounder how long it would take, but he never got to know because about thirty seconds after the man had shot himself another human could be heard outside, before he kicked the door open. As the old wooden door flew off its hinges two more humans came in the front door carrying their own firearms.

The younger deputy took one look at the condition of the canine on the floor bleeding, and the dead body with a hole in its head before he ran back outside and started puking. The older sheriff held down his lunch but stood in shock for a moment before walking over to Cael, the man took off his coat and used it to wrap up Cael and tried to stop his bleeding. He picked him up and carried him out to the sled he had rode in on. He set him down on it before mounting it himself, then they set off to the nearby town of Nome. Once there he would drop Cael off at the Nome vet.

They'd then get a few guys with sleds to help transport the other dogs still at the cabin to white mountain, as the vet in Nome couldn't house that many dogs. Cael wasn't sure if he was free, or if he just went from one hell to the next. But he did know one thing, he'd killed the human who had been responsible for the death of many of his friends and all of his living family, and he told himself one day he'd find those dogs to, and they'd pay as well.

-A/N sorry if anyone was disturbed by what took place in this chapter. I actually did less then I originally planned, instead later in the story when I reference points of that I will do flash backs to small parts of it, I think this will be a lot nicer and will probably read better I don't know but we'll find out. Sorry this took so long, I actually just went back and read my own story for the first time before I wrote this one. Hope you enjoyed it I'll post the next when soon-


	19. Chapter 19 …And a New Beginning

-A/N Few people were confused by the previous chapter, the name of the chapter was 'The End.." it wasn't the last chapter (not by a long shot) sorry for the confusion I could of picked a better one.-

Chapter 19 …And a New Begging

Flashes, that was all Cael could remember for awhile after his actions led to the human's death. For awhile it was white snow and trees flying by, then buildings, after that it was faces and hands. Staring at him with concern while gently examining him, saying words but he heard nothing with all the blood rushing past his ears. He had no idea they were talking about whether or not to put him down for the extent to his injures, several lacerations all across his body, broken bones, and a gun shot in his side, and this was just from glancing at him from the outside.

"Honey, I know you don't like it, but just look at him, he's a sack of bones covered in holes, its only right to end it." said the lead vet to the second vet, who was also his wife.

She merely cast her glance away and nodded, she always hated this part of her job. One of the assistants brought a black bottle and a syringe to the lead vet, he stuck the needle into the bottle and filled it with a blue liquid. Cael cast his glance towards it in a moment of clarity, he knew the liquid, the human who had tortured him had used it before on him, it started with small doses but the more he took in the more his body became accustomed to it and the more he needed to take in to get its affects.

The human who had hurt him used it to increase his heart rate, to increase blood flow on days were he had made him bleed to much. Looking at the syringe the new man was now holding, he knew, it would do nothing. However not one of the veterinarians standing around him knew this, and had never heard of a dog just laying there looking at them after being injected with a full syringe.

"um, sir I may only be just studying veterinary science, but I don't think he should still be looking at us after that." one of the assistants pitched in after a moment of surprised silence.

"yea, I guess were doing it your way then, take him to the operating room and get him prepped for surgery, we need to correct several bones and find a bullet." the lead vet said with a sigh while looking at his almost happy wife.

_The Next Day_

Balto knew he couldn't keep running, his chest was burning and his legs felt like rubber. He had just managed to sneak into town to get a meal for the first time in weeks. He was so exited about finally getting to eat he didn't bother to check around the last corner into the alley for the butcher shop. The same alley were Steele, Kaltag, Star, and Nikki were already picking through the left over meat. That was roughly an hour ago, Balto tried every trick he could think of to get away, but they always managed to catch up with him again, hell bent on catching him this time.

Balto turned to see if by chance he had lost them, sadly he hadn't lost them. Growling Balto turned around to see Jenna walk out in front of an alley and right into his path. Balto forced his front paws into the ground to stop himself, sliding across the snowy path he barley manged to swing himself around her, Steele however did not.

"ow! Dammit Steele!" Jenna cursed as he crashed into her, bending her paw to an awkward angle.

"Jenna! Your paw, is it...?" Balto asked, reaching out a paw to help her up.

Jenna accepted his help while shaking her head.

"I'm fine, I, I don't think my leg's broken, just sprained." She hissed as she tried to put weight on it.

"Get your paws off of her mutt! If you hadn't been causing all this trouble she wouldn't of gotten hurt in th-" That was what Steele managed to get out before Jenna whipped around and slammed her paw across his face.

Unluckily for her it was the same on she had just hurt. After seething in pain for a moment she looked up at a group of surprised dogs.

"First, Steele your an arrogant ass, I may not of seen all of it but I'm pretty sure Balto didn't do a thing to bother you or anyone for that matter, considering _you_ were chasing _him_. Second, Balto, I think _now_ it is broken, mind helping me get home?" Jenna asked the last part with a small smile.

Balto gladly accepted for two reasons, one was the more overt one, he would get to spend some time with Jenna, two Steele and his goons wouldn't pursue Balto if Jenna was with him, Steele wouldn't let them. The pair arrived at Jenna's house in a little less then an hour, far to soon as far as either was concerned but neither would say it.

"Well, um thanks Balto, I should go in by myself, you know how Rosy's father feels about..." she trailed off looking down while Balto just nodded solemnly before turning and walking away.

Jenna sighed, before limping up the frozen path to the front door, realizing she couldn't scratch at it with her leg broken she started to whine and bark lightly till Rosy's mother opened it to find Jenna sitting on her haunches with her left paw held against her chest. She quickly took Jenna inside were she and her husband proceeded to examine her leg while Rosy watched anxiously in the corner. It didn't take long for them to decide it would be best to take her to the vet.

They quickly grabbed their coats, Rosy's father carefully lifted Jenna so as not to further injure her leg, and they were off. They hurried to the vet to try and avoid the approaching blizzard that was howling across the land towards the sleepy Alaskan town. They managed to arrive just as the snow and wind started to pick up, more then glad to get inside. Once they were in they got Jenna logged in with the vet and made ready to leave her there for the night, when they realized the blizzard had come in quick and fierce leaving them snowed in for the night.

Gladly enough for them this particular vet put the animals on human beds that were thoroughly cleaned so they'd have a place to rest for the night. They were told that after the vet checked on Jenna they would have the room to themselves except for a lone canine. This led to some confusion, after the vet had finished looking at Jenna's leg and putting a cast around it, they were alone in the room with no other dogs in sight. While Rosy's parents claimed the bed on the far side of the room Rosy sat on the other with Jenna, Rosy's parents were talking quietly while Rosy petted and soothed Jenna, they all stopped to gaze as three assistants carried a bundled up blanket into the room and carefully set it on the far side of the bed away from Jenna and Rosy, following them the vet came back in to talk with Rosy's parents.

"I feel inclined to mention, The canine we just brought in was a victim of severe animal abuse, while yes sometimes animals who go through that can be violent this one seems to be just scared, he hasn't even tried to bite or scratch anyone who's handled him so far, the most he will do is cower from them. But, that isn't all, we're not completely certain, but we think he may be half or at-least part wolf." the vet informed them worried they might be angry about not being told this sooner.

"if he isn't violent, I guess I don't see the harm in it." the wife said slowly, not really having any other choice of places to stay.

Her husband showed his distaste for it with a grunt, but accepted it none the less. Rosy's smaller ears hadn't picked up the conversation that had just transpired. However, Jenna's much more sensitive canine ears had and now she was wondering what could possibly be under that blanket that the assistants were using to seemingly dry off the creature underneath. The process moved slow so they wouldn't hurt the already injured dog who had spent all day yesterday in different surreys and treatments, with more to come in the next few weeks on his long road to recovery.

After some time they began to carefully peal the blanket away, Jenna had a hard time understanding what she saw, he was both one of the largest and yet the smallest at the same time, his body size was massive, larger then any dog or wolf she'd ever seen, but he was just a skeleton, with loose fitting skin and fur clumped on, which seemed to be held in place by the mass of bandages and stitches all across his body.

For a moment Jenna thought maybe the humans had smothered him to death, till he took a slow ragged breath, followed by more increasingly smoother breaths as he calmed slightly. After his breathing seemed slightly normal Jenna slowly stood on the bed and took a step towards him, at the movement he lifted his head to look at her with yellow eyes, that looked as if they once held a burning fire, but now they looked dull and hollow. He spoke, his voice a ragged and whisper-y whimper.

"p-please...don't hurt me." while his appearance made him seem like a much older, his voice betrayed just how young he was, Jenna guessed he may be younger then her.

"what reason could I possibly have to hurt you?" Jenna asked bewildered and a little hurt by the assumption.

"I don't know, but I couldn't think of why the others would of either."

It struck Jenna, not just the statement, but the way he said it, it was devoid of hope, caring, even fear, in truth, it was almost like it was devoid of life itself. It took her a few seconds of standing there awkwardly while he laid there, watching her with eyes that didn't seem to see at all.

"I'm not them, and I'm sure whoever they were, their long gone." Jenna tried to say it soothingly.

"of course he is, he's dead, I killed him." He replied calmly.

Again, Jenna was taken aback, she stood with her mouth gaped open. She shook it off quicker then last time, she couldn't really blame him, the wolf-dog was covered from head to toe in bandages, what choice could he of had?

"Then there you go, he's gone, you have nothing to worry about." with that Jenna took a step forward.

Suddenly the wolf-dog was alive again, as he leapt.

-A/N sorry for the long update, this is actually the longest I have spent _working _on 1 chapter, also the thing about the euthanasia, yea that was complete bull, but as my creative writing teacher once said, 'writing can be a license to lie'. Sorry this took so long to write, I've been REALLY busy, taking a course over the next few years to get my veterinary assistant certification-


	20. Chapter 20 Trust?

-A/N I'm so sorry for how long this took to update, there was just a lot going on with school and family and then I went on vacation, anyway I got back today and finished this up, this is probably the longest I've actually spent _working_ on one chapter, this is also the only time I've actually really edited one, should probably do that all the time huh?-

Chapter 20 trust?

As Jenna stepped forward Cael suddenly burst to life, pushing off with his hind legs he leapt up away from Jenna to the corner, he stood there lips curled back fangs presented snarling and growling at Jenna as if she had tried kill him.

"stay away from me! Make one more step forward and I-I'll kill you!" Cael snarled as he backed into the corner.

Rosy jumped from the bed in shock as the quite canine suddenly transformed into a growling monster. Rosy's father flew into a passion of anger shouting at the vet saying he had endangered his family. In the middle of all of this was Jenna, hearing Rosy breath heavily from fright, Cael's growling and Rosy's father swearing at the vet, but it wasn't what she heard but what she saw that kept her glued in place even as Rosy and her mother pleaded for Jenna to get away from him. She could see Cael's legs trembling, his eyes watering, lips quivering, his tail between his legs and on top of it all his voice seemed to come out as a shaky whimper masked by a facade of a growl , he wasn't an enraged beast, he was a young, terrified mutt who didn't understand a kind gesture, having never experienced one save in the memory's of his parents that were to deeply buried in mountains of agony.

To Rosy's dismay Jenna slowly took another step towards Cael, who tried to snarl and growl even louder, she kept moving forward, one slow step at a time, Cael followed each with more painfully empty threats and snarls, till finally she was right in front of him, just looking at him with an expression of pity, at that moment Cael's voice broke in the middle of another false attempt at intimidation, his voice cracked and faltered, with his voice he to broke. His tail tucked further between his legs, his face dropped into his stomach and he started to whimper as he attempted to choke back sobs.

"p-please! Just leave me be! I never d-did anything! Why do you insist on a-always coming back? It was done, it was over I was going t-to d-_die_ and I would finally be away from all this, this _hell_!" Everyone in the room was shocked speechless as the snarling demon turned into a whining, cowering form before the young husky who hadn't even touched him.

Jenna found so many things wrong with this, here was a canine who should be a massive wild free wolf, probably an alpha of a pack from his sheer size, and he was in such a bad state, malnourished and covered in bandages, a pup could probably tackle him to the ground. On top of that he was cowering before her sobbing so violently he couldn't even speak. Jenna had to stop this, she reached out her paw and gentle placed it on his shoulder, he quickly recoiled as if she had seared his flesh, she tried again and this time he flinched but didn't pull away.

"Look, I'm not with them, I promise you , I don't know what they did to you, but I know it was wrong, but you need to know its over now, your safe here." Jenna whispered softly to him, a bit to her surprise he seemed to calm a bit.

"how do I know your not one of them? There was so many dogs there, and more then once I saw other humans there to, you could all easily be with them for all I know." his whimpered into his paws.

"I guess, for not you will just have to trust me."

"trust?" at the sound of the word the wolf-dog looked up from his paws to give the dog a sideways glance.

"yea, you know like, when you trust someone?" Jenna added, confused by his befuddled look.

"I-no, I don't know, I didn't learn much in the short time I was, with my parents." the hybrid said slowly.

"wha-how old, were you when you left them?" Jenna asked confused.

"I didn't leave them! Th-they took me from them, after they killed them." at first he raised his voice, but towards the end it became just a shaky whisper.

"I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"I was less then a year old, my mother explained time to me once, she said there are four seasons, I remember a winter, and she said I was born in late summer, I was less then a year old. That was more then two years ago." he continued, cutting off Jenna as he no longer heard her, his eyes glassy as he remembered the horrific moments when he last saw his parents.

Jenna was about to continue to comfort him when she noticed the area around his paws had turned a crimson red with blood. She backed up slightly and barked in surprise the vet walked over to see what made Jenna jump, becoming alarmed at the blood he slowly placed a hand on the canine, seeing that he wasn't going to bite he pulled him forward and laid him on his back to begin looking for the source of the blood.

Jenna tried to quietly look over the vets shoulder to see for herself, after several minutes the vet came to the shocking discovery that the source was his eyes, he gently parted the fur to get a better look at the skin, finding scars on either side of his face just under his eyes and from the facial fractures the canine had from when he came he the vet guessed that somehow he had damaged his tear ducts, causing them to leak blood whenever the animal were to have tears falling.

As the human touched the scars Cael had a sudden flash back, suddenly for an instant he was back, chained to a pole, trying to shield his face in vain from the unrelenting pain of the large lead pipe that fell on him till he couldn't bring himself to move. To Cael this flash back seemed to last ages, but all anyone around him noticed was a slight flinch as the curious vet's finger gently ran the length of the rough crescent shaped scar.

"It doesn't seem to cause him pain, and even if it did I don't think there's any thing we could do for that. Either way Mr. Arnswell, I assure you other then that minor outburst he had right there, and that seemed more like pent up frustration to me, he has been quite docile, not really bothered anyone to the point it seems like he doesn't know he is alive." The vet informed Rosy's father, trying to reinstate the assurance he had moments ago.

"I don't like it, but we don't have much of a choice, does it at least have a name?" He eventually said with a very displease look upon his face.

"well, he didn't have a collar, tags or anything like that, but um, we did find a name on him, in the form of a scar on the back of his neck. By the looks of it someone etched 'Cael' into the back of his neck, he seems to respond to it rather well." As if to prove his point the cross-breed raised his ears at the mention of it.

"and do we have to worry about fleas at all? I don't want Jenna or my family getting bit up." He growled

"actually no, sometimes when an animal gets into such a bad shape, fleas wont even bother with them, in other words Jenna may have more fleas on here then he does at this moment." The doctor said matter-of-factly as he motioned for his assistants to clear and sterilize the bed of all the blood, putting both the dogs on the floor for a moment.

After a bit more conversation the vet and his duo of assistants left the family plus one canine alone, informing them they would be just down the hall if they were needed. Rosy's parents advised her to be careful of Cael fearing he might snap again. For the moment all he did was lay on a blanket in the corner of the bed while Rosy groomed Jenna's fur on the other side. Jenna repeatedly tried to converse with Cael but unresponsive, only occasional grunting and whimpering as he tried to get comfortable.

By the time Rosy at finished grooming and had moved on to just scratching and petting Jenna, Jenna had managed to at least get Cael to look over and her direction and listen to what she was saying. Rosy happened to notice Cael staring, thinking he was watching her pet Jenna she slowly offered her other hand to pet him. Cael only knew 2 things that human hands were used for, hitting and holding objects to be used for hitting, so he backed away from the hand nose so low it grazed the bed spread.

"Whats the matter boy?" Rosy asked confused by Cael's behavior.

"Rosy, sweetie, there's a good chance he has never been shown any signs of affection from a human, only hurt." her mother explained softly hoping to discourage her from getting closer to him.

Rosy, begging to understand what had happened to him started to cry at the thought of it, at the mere idea that someone would hurt a dog for any reason. Jenna hated to see Rosy cry, she nuzzled her shoulder in an attempted to stop her from crying as she to started to let tears flow, but it seemed to have little effect. At that moment Cael realized two things, one, the meaning of trust, and that perhaps he _might_ be able to trust a human and her companion who would cry over what he had gone through, especially if, in truth they couldn't imagine most of it in their darkest and most horrible nightmares; and two, he didn't like to see them crying either. Cael tentatively stepped forward, he sucked in his breath before he leaned towards the crying girl and rubbed his head under her chin.

Rosy stopped crying almost immediately in surprise, though she quickly recovered and gently wrapped an arm around the half wolf and soothingly petted his rough, un-kept fur. Jenna to was surprised at his action, though not nearly as Cael was when Rosy had hugged and petted him.

"Cael, why did you...?" Jenna trailed off not really sure how to ask.

"I don't know, I just didn't like seeing her cry, it made me sad, and to be honest I don't think I can really handle feeling anymore worse then I already do." Cael offered somewhat jokingly.

Rosy's parents tried to convince her not to be so close to the dog but eventually gave in to their own exhaustion and decided it would be fine for one night. That night Rosy slept sandwiched in between two canines, and for the first time in almost two years, Cael slept through a night with out any nightmares, but unfortunately for Cael one would soon be coming for him.

-A/N sorry it couldn't be longer but I just got back from a camping trip today, its late at night, I'm exponentially tired and I have school in the morning, I'll try to update soon but with how well I've been doing with updates I wouldn't hold your breath, again I'm REALLY sorry about update times-


	21. Chapter 21 Change

-NOT AN UPDATE was just changing somethings that REALLY bugged me, for reasons unknown to me likes to screw with my formatting and such.-

-I'd like to thank Agent-007.1 for telling me I need longer chapters, I would have been making them longer but I was worried if I made them to long people might just get tired of reading or something, so hopefully I can break that habit and make chapters longer, that or I'll just start writing what I could consider two full chapters and post them as one, either or they will be longer that I promise. Oh and in case you didn't already guess it, I only own a few things in this world, and sadly Balto isn't one of them.-

Chapter 21 Change

He was angry, he didn't know why but he was, he shouldn't, he had finally gotten what he wanted all along. The one always blocking his path was now out of his way, now he was in a new life, were he was the biggest, the strongest, and most important, all bowed before him, well in this case they got the hell out of his way. As the large brown wolf stormed his way across the gray mush that was the snow, wolves would jump out of his path and pull younger ones with them. Most wolves had come to fear Shazu, after what he had done to Surge.

The attack from the humans had left the entire alpha family dead or missing. It was an almost unanimous decision that Surge should take the place, he and Lundy were the betas after all. This mere notion infuriated Shazu, to the point were he openly challenged Surge, he beat him into submission and long after in front of his entire family. Before he was even attacked Surge already had a limp in his front left leg, due to the fact that he had been shot in the shoulder when the humans attacked, now he was horribly scarred on his entire left side, he could barely use the front left leg and he couldn't even see out of his left eye.

While most of the family was mortified something inside Baku most of snapped, rather then hate Shazu for what he did to his father, he liked him for it. He would follow him everywhere after the incident and do what ever he asked him, he quickly rose to become the new Beta. As far as he was concerned the only bad thing about what had happened was that due to how much he respected Shazu, his family now hated him just as much as they hated Shazu, he and Haze would get into fights on a regular basis, normally ending with Haze beating him until Baku ordered others to come and attack him.

The pack had also moved for obvious reasons, they had gone south, and now resided in a forest near the coast, the nearest human town was about fifteen miles north-west from them, and normally hunters and dog sled teams didn't go this far in this direction. And on the rare occasion that they did the wolves would either avoid or neutralize them, though most would rather just avoid them seeing as how sometimes humans look for other missing humans.

From the attack of the humans up to when they settled in here not much changed for the shadow valley clan, not even their numbers much, though almost half the clan was wiped out a number of wolves joined the pack shortly after Shazu took hold of it, these wolves became his elite guard, it was a total of twenty wolves, the main four were Cruor*, Nex, Leto and Angro*, sometimes called the judges as Shazu often used them for means of punishment. Aside from them there was what was left of the ravaged Shadow Valley Clan, in the two and a half years since few if any pups had been born, mostly because moral was so low at this point none wanted to birth pups to this life.

Shazu also had more wolves rumored to be under his command, hidden way off into the forest were no one else dared to venture. They were said to all be as vicious and blood thirsty as the judges if not worse. Others said they were out their studying human methods, everything from their weapons to their medical supplies. There were many rumors about what he had out there, but they all agreed on one thing, he had something out there.

Shazu thought about all these things as he approached his den, he planned to accompany one of this scouting parties later, just to do something, because nothing changed anymore, it was always the same, literally gray, routine around here. Just as he thought this he heard the rapid wet beating sound of someone running through the slush.

"Sir! I need to talk to you right away, something's happened!" Panted a frantic scout who had been running all day for several days only stopping to rest at nights.

Shazu simply growled and flicked his head towards his den. The scout nodded and followed him in, as soon as they were inside and out of both ear and eye shot of everyone outside Shazu slammed his paw hard across the wolf's face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Never come running through here shouting things like that! I don't give a damn if there is a forest fire and we'll all be dead in minutes, you report directly and discretely to me, got that? I don't want any more reasons for them to complain" Shazu growled as he loomed over the gasping wolf while grabbing his muzzle with his paw and pounding his face onto the stone for emphasis.

"now, report!" Shazu demanded as he carelessly tossed the scout back.

"w-well sir, me and my team were at the post you assigned us, you know watching over the place were the human took Caelum? Well a few days ago a pair of humans showed up and got into an argument with the hunter, the next day they showed up and starting beating on his door and windows shouting at him to open up, shortly after we heard two gunshots. Later they brought out Caelum and the hunter, Caelum was still alive but one of our scouts when to take a close look and said he was shot, the human was dead. They took Caelum to the human town, the one just up the coast from us." As the scout got the the end of his report cringed back, expecting to be hit again for his news.

To his surprise Shazu had the exact opposite reaction. He burst out laughing, but it wasn't a joyful laugh, it was a sadistic and menacing laugh, the kind of laugh someone uses just before they mutilate small children.

"little cur just wont die without a fight, alright then I'll give him one. You and your team are to move yourselves to the woods surrounding the human town."

"um sir? Isn't there already a team there?"

"very good, you can state the obvious pretty damn well, now shut up and listen before I have to find a replacement. The team already there is to watch the human town, you are there strictly to watch Caelum, I want to know everything he does, who he interacts with, who he befriends, who he hates and gets into fights with, were he sleeps, were he eats and if he finds a regular spot for it you better damn well tell me were he pisses and how long he takes to do it! Understood? And another thing, if he starts into the woods, I want you to come back, and get the judges, show them were to find them, from that point you can sit back and enjoy the show." Shazu growled in anticipation, he would finally get to make sure Marrok's blood line ended.

The terrified scout nodded and ran out of there, only stopping to get a drink and a bite to eat before he headed back, he found his team half way in between their old post and the pack's location, shortly after they started to Nome.

Shazu was confident that soon the mutt would be dead, even if the judges didn't get him before he found the Shadow Valley Clan over time he had planted the idea in everyone's heads that it was Cael's fault what had happened, that the humans had come looking for Silver and together they were plotting to kill all the wolves in Alaska, now that Silver was dead the humans had taken Caelum to take her place in their plot. Most all of them accepted this and used it to point all their anger over killed loved ones at Caelum, only a few knew it was a complete lie.

One of those few was Moon, she had seen the human almost kill Cael, but instead take him alive, and just now she had hidden herself behind Shazu's cave, were a small opening let her hear everything that was said. Now she knew were to find her friend, now she also knew a way to take Shazu out of power, but first she had to find way to reach him.

The next morning Jenna and her people left to go home, Jenna limping awkwardly with her leg in a cast. Over the next few weeks Cael, with great difficulty, settled into a sort of routine, he would wake up, eat something, get some 'exercise', every two-to-three days he would be checked over by a vet, he would eat another meal, go outside for a bit, eat a third and final meal for the day, and after that he was normally left to himself, till he went to sleep and it started all over again.

At first he had been scared of everyone and everything, even the next morning when Jenna and Rosy had awoken and Rosy reached over to pet him he jumped and tumbled off the bed. Word spread quickly about how he had growled at Jenna the first night, so many of the staff would try to avoid getting charged with taking care of him, that was all except for the head vet's soon-to-be-wife, Diane, whom had looked at it from a different angle, he was abused all his life and had a sudden and drastic change to his life; he was completely and utterly terrified.

Over time she would slowly approach him and show him trust and compassion, he eventually began to trust her more and more, so naturally most the other staff would attempt to get her to take care of him when the task was given to them. Truth be told she had become fond of the hybrid so they need not try very hard, this was to the dismay of her fiance, Alik, who feared the animal would cause her injury. This led to Alik growing a great hatred for Caelum, as a vet the only thing he could do though was get him out of his facility as quickly as possible without Diane realizing what he was doing. Sadly for him, she was a terrific snoop.

* * *

"Dammit Alik! I have _nothing_ to fear from Cael." She shouted hotly at the large Russian.

"Nothing to fear? He is a _wolf_ he _snapped_ at a little girl and her dog and on top of that he _killed _a man!" Alik shouted back, his voice clearly showing his heritage.

"His pedigree means nothing to me, he didn't understand what was going on with those two and was scared and as for that worthless monster, Cael didn't kill him he shot himself." Diane seethed through gritted teeth, furious that he thought Cael was in the wrong for the fate of his abuser.

As their argument continued the canine in mention was with them under a tree in the middle of the fenced off courtyard unsure on how to proceed. He had been trying to work on how to act around others appropriately, when he had tried to bite a vet who was applying fresh bandages to his leg Diane had told him for awhile after that he wasn't to harm humans, but here this large man was yelling at one of the only two humans he cared about; what was he to do? Stick to pacifistic ways or help his friend? He found a simple solution by mistake, in his mental debate he began unconsciously making soft whines reminding the two humans they had a third companion.

"Look, Alik, just trust me on this will you please? And even if you wont you can't keep rushing his treatment, it's not good for him and you took the same oath we all did to always do whatever is best for our animal patients." Diane said in a softer voice, as her worry for whatever now ailed Cael over came her aggression.

Alik hesitated for a moment before he let his own grimace fall away and nodded. He turned on his heels to leave the exercise yard. As he left he thought about other ways to get Cael out faster, after all he had only agreed to stop rushing his treatment. Diane sighed, knowing it wasn't over yet. She turned to Cael who ran to her and nuzzled her hand as she knelt down and began to stroke his head. She was confused for a moment as to why he had been whining before when it suddenly clicked.

"you didn't like hearing us argue did you?" She asked

in response Cael licked her face and let out his odd low pitched, short bark.

Diane couldn't help but smile at the actions, it almost seemed like he knew what she had said.

* * *

Again Balto was on the run from Steele and his lackeys. He was almost out of tricks, and worse yet he wasn't familiar with this part of Nome. He was starting to pant badly and would need to slow down soon or risk making himself pass out, he rounded a corner into an alley and then rounded another, then to his dismay he was met with the site of a dead end. Balto pushed his front legs out in front of himself to stop before slamming into the quickly approaching wall, his efforts only slowed him a little before impact and threw up enough snow to bury himself in after he hit. Steele and his goons rounded the corner into the alley to find a dizzy Balto with a split open forehead stumble from a pile of snow.

"aw, look at the little cur playing in the snow. And look, he has little cut! Lets fix that boys, its not nearly big enough to be _fatal_!" Steele snarled as they all charged across the alley at Balto.

Balto had barely gotten to his feet when Steele slammed him up against the same wall he had ran into, using his paw to hold Balto's muzzle to it while he used it other to start beating him over the head. Balto's already blurry vision started to get worse as Steele hit him again and again, he felt one of the other dogs biting on his hind legs and back, he had to do something and fast. He tried to push down the pain as much as he could as he forced his mouth open enough to bite at the paw Steele was using to hold him, tearing the entire foot open wide as Steele jerked it away while Balto was still clamped onto it.

Steele flailed around enough to send Balto sprawling away into the snow, Kaltag quickly tried to pounce on him. Balto rolled just in time as Kaltag's head made contact with the side wall, he was out with little more then a groan. Star ran to the entrance of the alley to block Balto in while Nikki and a limping Steele started to close in on him from behind. Balto turned and ran towards start, when he was within the proper distance he leapt towards the small gray sled dog, his jaws open wide and pointed teeth flying straight for starts face. Star did just as Balto had hoped and ducked, he didn't want to fight them merely escape.

To both of their surprise one of Balto's canines caught Star's ear as he flew over him, ripping it from the base to half way up the side in an 'L' shape. Balto stood for a moment in shock, he'd never really tried to harm any of them, only escape, and now Star was rolling on the ground howling in pain as he held part of his head as it gushed blood from the severed blood vessels, making to everyone in the alley the wound seem much more serious. Balto didn't stay long as he turned and fled in terror, now they had a reason to hate him besides just his breed, not that it was his fault, they had literally cornered him in an alley.

Balto sprinted to the outskirts of Nome then ran into the forest, using them to hide in as he ran towards the beach. Once there he ran to the wrecked trawler, his large paws could clearly be heard pounding across the deck as he ran up the carefully placed blank and onto the slanted deck. At the sound of someone on the deck an old white Russian snow goose by the name of Boris waddled out with an annoyed look on his face.

"Boychick! Were have you been, I've been wo-wo AHH!" Boris screamed as he saw Balto's blood covered and swollen face.

"h-hey Boris, s-sorry I'm late." Balto mumbled with a small laugh before he fell onto his side and finally gave into to the beckoning darkness.

"Uncle Boris? Whats going on? What happened to Balto?" Muk asked as he and Luk made their way out of the ship's cabin.

"Those damn dogs got him again that's what happened!" Boris shouted in anger, followed by many more obscenities in both English and Russian.

As if on a cue Nikki suddenly bounded up onto the deck, Steele Kaltag and Star were on the gang plank waiting to see if the wolf-dog had indeed come back here.

"Weres did that mangy mutt gets t-to?" Nikki stuttered the last word as he turned to face a large and rather pissed off polar bear snarling in his face before he slapped him in the face, sending Nikki flying over the edge of the ship.

Muk and Luk ran to the lip of the boat and snarled out at the quartet of dogs as they turned tale and fled. After they retreated to Balto's nearly motionless form, the only indication of life being the slight rasp of breath and the rise and fall of his torso. They carefully lifted him and carried him into the cabin to lay him onto his ragged blanket, then without a word Muk and Luk went to get some snow to put on his wounds, they knew what to do as this was not the first time he had come back like this. But this time would prove to be different, as Balto would only become conscious on rare occasions and then not remember much before or even after the attack, sometimes even forgetting who his own name. Boris quickly realized he had a concision.

That night they had no choice but to carefully sneak him to the door step of the vet's office, and hope for the best, it killed Boris a bit inside to just leave him laying there; so he perched himself on a nearby roof top, Muk and Luk were to large to try and hide in town for long, even at night so they left back to the boat to wait for Boris to return. Within an hour a female opened to door to go step outside for a moment and screamed in shock when she discovered Balto laying, she checked for signs of life before carefully taking him inside.

Fate must have been one twisted bastard this night, for the next few hours Balto, Caelum , Steele, Kaltag, Nikki and Star were all stuck in the small vets office. When it was found that Balto was indeed the infamous wolf-dog of the town he was put in the same room as the currently sleeping Caelum; Steele and the others were put in a room just down the hall. For now none of them knew of their current predicament, but as all good things, it wouldn't last.

-A/N hope that one was long enough, but not to long, if not then just let me know and I'll work on it. Also I hope the writing was screwy, its late and I worked this on and off while talking to people so sorry if its messed up.-


	22. Chapter 22 Wake-up Call

-A/N

"Frank woods 12/5/12 . chapter 1

When will you UPDATE! :-"

Eh, now seems good. Also, I want to apologize if in past chapters something seemed weird about transitions, such as in the last chapter if it seemed to go from from Shazu to Caelum with nothing more then an empty space, Fanfiction likes to delete a lot of my formatting for whatever reason.-

Chapter 22 wake-up call

Cael groaned as he rolled, slowly waking up. He looked sleepily about the small room, when he noticed something that made both curious and alert. There was now _two_ water and food dishes set up against the wall. He peered closely at the second cot, surely enough there was another dog in there, and from the looks of him he was pretty bad off, his head, hind legs and midsection were wrapped in bandages that were partially red from blood seeping into them. Even though the other dog was in such bad shape, and he didn't know any of their intentions, it scared the hell out of Cael.

The only reason Cael was in a room by himself was he was in a sort of quarantine now. After the night when he had what seemed like mood swings with Rosy's family someone said something about Rabies and now they kept every other animal away from him as much as possible. The only reason Balto was in there now was because he was another half-wolf, and who would care if a couple of half-breeds died?

Just his resting forming being on the opposite side of the room suddenly reminded Cael, while yes the two humans and Jenna were nice, _now_, he had no clue what to expect from anyone else. Cael actually considered killing him while he slept, but he suddenly remembered something his father told him while teaching Cael to hunt. There was a difference between killing out of necessity, such as hunting or protecting yourself and loved ones, and needless bloodshed, simply killing for no real reason was to be considered outright wrong and evil.

Cael whimpered in confusion as he buried his face into the pillows. To him that was a thin line, did he cross it already when he killed that human? Would he be crossing it now if he killed this unknown dog? He couldn't figure out this simple idea of right and wrong. He may have the body of a full grown canine, but mentally he was just an abused and tortured pup.

With a sigh he stood, the blanket still draped over his shoulders, he stretched his legs out in front of him, as he did he first noticed how long they seemed. The only other canine he'd seen for awhile was Jenna, and the dogs at the house in the woods, he always tried to avoid looking at the others, and he'd only assumed Jenna was just a little smaller because she was female, but this other dog here was male and still much smaller then himself. He shook his head, yawned and jumped to the floor. He stumbled and landed on his face, he may be big, but he still had barely any muscle in his boney body.

Cael involuntarily shouted in pain, it was short but loud enough to stir Balto from his sleep. Balto attempted to roll onto his left legs and stand, the moment he tried to put pressure on his hind leg he shouted in pain and fell back to the bed. As he gasped for breath he became aware that he was being watched, turning his head he looked at his audience, unsure of what to say he merely stared. Balto didn't have to look long before he snarled and pounced.

* * *

Moon's lungs burned, but she didn't dare stop running, not until she reached her den, and even then not until she made it to were she slept and kept a few simple belongings. When she got there she fell onto the nest of cloth she had made for herself and wept. She had listened from a crevice in the back of Shazu's cave, she had heard his conversation with the scout, and the order to kill Cael if he came into the woods.

Moon had always hoped Cael was still alive, she'd seen the human take him, but she'd never known what happened after. Now she knew he was alive, but for whatever reason Shazu wanted him dead, she had to stop them. She pushed her head through the piece of fabric on the wall, when she pulled away from the wall she now wore the black hood. She found it, and the material used to make her bedding on an abandoned dog sled, now she used it to hide her face whenever she did something Shazu and his croons wouldn't allow.

Moon had heard them say the town was just a few miles west, hopefully she could get there before it was to late. She made for the cave entrance, the sun had set while she was inside, all the better that she move at night.

"Going somewhere?"

Moon jumped and whipped around in surprise, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it was just her brother Haze.

"I, I need to go to the human town west of here." Moon averted her ears and eyes.

"And just why the hell are you doing that? Do you want to die or something?"

"I have to! I can't tell you why, not now. I promise you I will be back, but I can't say when."

"Damn it Moon, why do you always run off like this? If those judges find you sneaking around again, they'll-" Haze sighed, unable to complete that thought. "Moon, I just don't want history to repeat itself. Not after what they did to you last time." His voice took a softer tone as he approached and touched his nose to her cheek, indicating the set of scares that ran the length of her face.

"No, I'll kill everyone of them or die before I go through that again, but I swear to you neither will happen, they wont even be in the area, only a few scouts and I'll be avoiding them as well. Take care of mother and father for me, and give them my love." Moon nuzzled her brother and ran before he could argue.

"Be careful." He growled to the twirling spirals of dust she had left.

* * *

Steel growled, not out of aggression, but boredom. After the half-breed had torn open his paw and the polar bears tossed Nikki off the boat they returned home to their master. Who had cursed and brought them all to the vet. Now he could do nothing but lay around waiting for his paw to heal, Kaltag had a minor concussion from running into the wall, Nikki's face was had a set of ragged claw marks from the polar bear, and part of Star's ear couldn't be saved.

He swore he would get that half-breed as soon as he got the chance. In his boredom Steel gazed down the hallway, and his jaw nearly dropped, he could see the unmistakable yellow eyes of a wolf. At first he thought it was Balto, but once it stood he knew there wasn't a snow day's chance in hell it was him, even at this distance Steel could tell this guy was huge, easily a head taller then himself if not more.

Steel flicked his gaze over at his three followers, all of whom were still deep asleep, and right now no help to him. Didn't matter, he wasn't going to pick a fight with someone that big, no but he would get a closer look. Steel crawled from his bed, careful of his injured paw and limped down the hallway to the wolf's room.

Steel pokes his head in just in time to see the wolf jump from his bed, stumble fall face first onto the floor and shout in pain. Steel notices Balto as he stirs in his bed, and he freezes in fear. Here he is, in a room with two wolves, both of whom are most likely hostile, Steel is alone and he if injured, he hates to admit it to even himself, but he has never been more afraid.

In his panic his eyes dart around the room for an escape, until he realizes, while the one wolf is rather large, he is skinny enough that Steel can see his bones easily, and Balto can't even stand, this isn't a nightmare, its a dream come true, he can take out two wolves in one swift action.

As Balto turns his head to look for the source of the Steel makes a split second decision to use the element of surprise while he still has it, he pounces at the wolf as he shakily picks himself up. Balto can only watch at first, as Steel barrels into the unknown, easily getting on top as the frantic wolf doesn't so much fight but cower in fear. Once Steel knows he has the upper hand he holds nothing back, beating on him with everything he has, his claws tear into him again and again as he uses his injured paw to hold him down and the other to mutilate him.

Cael feels someone slam into him, feels claws dig into him again and again, sees his blood splatter on everything around them, he hears someone scream and it takes him some time to realize it's him screaming. He remembers, damn near every day when they would attack him, laugh at him, claw him, bite him, and make him eat that meat even though he knew were it came from, and who it was. Something inside Cael snapped, again, he felt the same rush off adrenalin and rage he felt on the day he killed that bastard, and now he is ready to do it again.

His screams of terror and pain suddenly turn to snarls of rage and blood lust. His paw shoots straight up, even without much muscle tone the impact snaps Steel's head straight up and back, lifting his front legs off the ground long enough for Cael to get free. He rolled out from underneath him, sprang up, bite and holding onto his attacker's shoulder as he goes. Cael turns his entire body, using every bit of strength he has to throw Steel at the supply closet door.

Steel's body slammed into the door with enough force to give him double vision for a moment. As he shook his head clear he saw the suddenly fierce wolf charging at him, his face contorted in pure rage as he runs forward and slams his paw into Steel's head again, this time he sends him back, _through_ the door. The last thing Steel sees is the wolf standing over him, blood dripping off the tip of his muzzle were he had cut him.

"Stop!" Balto's shout reached Cael's ears, snapping from his blood-thirsty daze him mid-step towards Steels unconscious form, and Cael got the feeling it wasn't the first time he'd said either.

"Why? What give him the right to live? He came attacked me for nothing, he is just like the rest of them! All of them deserve to die and I'm more then willing to be the one to kill them!" Cael had to admit, he could hear how crazy he sounded at this point, but he didn't care, all he wanted to do was end it.

"Yea what he did is wrong, but killing him won't make anything right! What would your family think if they found out you killed someone, huh?" As soon as Balto said it he knew he'd said something wrong, the wolf's expression became even more vacant and distant.

"Their all dead. Their all dead because people like him killed them! All the more reason why I should do the same to them!" Cael was crying and shouting now, his head pressed against the wall, he felt like cracked, and ready to break.

"Then what of friends? Hell anyone important to you, and if not then what about your own life?" He wasn't sure if he said the right thing or the wrong thing, it seemed as if someone had pressed a pause button, the wolf stopped everything at his words.

"Moon." Cael whispered the name, suddenly getting a wake-up call, the reason he'd escaped the human's clutches in the first place, he had to find her.

Before Balto could ask what the moon had to do with anything Cael ran towards the single window in the room, jumping onto a chair before smashing through the glass, and plowing into a snowdrift. He quickly popped up from snow and ran off out of sight, ignoring the cuts from his would be attacker the the window.

"Is it to much to ask for this all to be some kinda screwed up delusion from taking to many hits to the head?" Balto huffed to the mess of a scene before him.

* * *

Cael was lost for while as he ran through the small town, eventually he got his bearing and ran east, towards a patch of woods at random. As he got to the edge of the woods by some stroke of cruel luck, Cael spotted a familiar face. It was Lez, he'd remember the nervous scout anywhere, all the times he would stutter when he reported anything he thought was bad news. With an unknowing grin on his face Cael ran right to him shouting his name with tears of joy stinging his eyes.

* * *

Lez had only gotten here the night before, and he couldn't believe his, could he call it luck? Not only had Cael come into the forest, he was going right to him. He gave a signal to one of the other scouts to send the message, it was time to summon the judges.

* * *

Moon finally made it to the human town, she stopped on a hill top near the edge of the forest to look over all the buildings, it was all new to her. She was snapped back to reality by a familiar voice calling out. She couldn't place the voice but she knew who they were calling to, they were yelling the name of the lowly scout sent here by Shazu to watch Cael.

-A/N Hope you like it, and sorry it seems a little off, because lately I've been feeling, well a little 'off' myself. Anyway hope you liked it, and I'll try to work on update times, oh and big surprise I don't own Balto (shocker right?), but if you want to sue me, I'll let you pick, Jack or Shit cause that's all I got.-


	23. Chapter 23 A Bloody Reunion

Author's note: Long time no see huh?  
Long-ass-updatetime = sorry  
Pathetic excuse = life's a bitch  
if it seems like shit = I ended up writing this one chapter about 5 times, each time between being at about 1-6 am, at home trying to concentrate, at school neglecting my work or at random places (Even work once or twice) on my tablet so yea...sorry if it sucks.

Chapter 23 A bloody reunion

Caelum couldn't believe his good luck, first he managed to finally get away from that bastard of a human, then he managed to fight of that sled dog that had attacked him, and now after all this time he'd managed to find one of his old pack mates before he'd really even started looking. But it wasn't nearly as good as it seemed, fate being cruel and cold-blooded as it is, he was running from the frying pan straight into the fiery pit of a brand new hell.

Leo gave the signal to one of his scouts to run back and alert the judges who were resting in a cave nearby. Leo shivered at the thought of them coming here, even though he was on their side these sick bastards didn't really seem to care who was who, all they wanted to do was kill, maim, and torture, regardless of whose 'side' you're on. As Leo waited he realized something, Caelum was still running straight at them, he shook his head at the thought, no way he'd seen them that easy.

"Hey! Leo! Over here!" Caelum shouted in glee, he knew it was a horrible idea to ever shout in the woods but he was too overjoyed to care.

Ok maybe he had seen them, with a nod of his head he signaled the others to fall back a little and hide deeper in the brush. Leo sat there trembling in fear; if he tried to run Caelum would either pursue him or realize something was wrong and flee, then Leo would have to answer to the judges why they were called if he wasn't here. If he stayed where he was then surely if everything Shazu had said was true he'd be torn to pieces. Leo made up his mind, the judges were surely much worse than a quick death, he and his scouts would hold him off till they arrived then get the hell out-of-the-way.

"Alright guys, were just going to have to hold him off till" was all Leo got out before his throat was torn out.

Moon panted over the body of the dead scout, she'd ran all night and into this day to get to the human settlement before it was too late, only stopping when she heard this scout running past and recognized him from Leo's scouting party. As moon sat there catching her breath she briefly remembered the first time she'd killed one of her own kind, it wasn't long after Shazu had taken over and her brother betrayed them.

It ended up being a day of many first times for her, the first time she'd seen a wolf under the effects of the death weeds, a small red and black leafy plant that grows around the area. Its name comes from the fact that it smells like something that's been dead for awhile. Some have found that chewing it has a few effects on them, mainly being that it increases testosterone greatly for a time, making the user stronger, faster, irrational, and makes them get a high of feeling so powerful.

The wolves of the Shadow valley clan had never encountered such a thing before, but most, if not all the wolves Shazu started bringing in chewed the plants regularly. Moon was walking about the edge of the packs land when she found one such wolf attempting to force himself on a female whose family had been killed by the human who attacked them at the valley. Without hesitation Moon pounced on the male, under Marrok such an offence had always been met with the punishment of death. Having taken him by surprise Moon easily tore into his neck, twisting and turning till she broke all the bones and was able to remove the head entirely. After that, was the first time she was sent to be punished by the judges.

The thought of the judges made all her scars burn as the remembered Cael was very well in danger. She tore in the direction the scout had come from kicking up large sums of dirt and lose grass as she went, dodging trees and leaping over fallen logs. Moon burst through the tree line, skidding to a halt before on top of a hill overlooking the human settlement. She made good use of her vantage point to scan every inch of visible land for Cael. She swore when she spotted a canine limping to the tree line on the other side of the town, no way it could be a coincidence.

Moon ran straight towards him, planning to go through the human settlement. Flying past surprised humans and dogs alike without a second thought; thinking back on it she realized that a wolf running through a human town as they called it was practically suicide and the fact she made it through with out being killed is nothing short of a miracle. Her run was pretty much a straight shot right through town, save the leap onto then over a warehouse at the end of her path, landing her at the foot of yet another hill, on top of that hill was Caelum looking on in shock as Leo was mutilated.

"Were are my manners? Hello there! My name Nex, and if I'm not mistaken you're Caelum right? Oh it doesn't matter! I'll just kill you and take you're head back to confirm it was you, but enough dilly dally, you've got a meeting in the depths of hell!" Nex told at Caelum in a sing-song voice as Leo's blood dripped from her maw.

Caelum was in shock, it had nothing to do with the with mangled wolf at his attackers feet. Caelum hadn't forgotten the description his mother had given him of his sister who'd died, he remembered his mother showing him a stain in the room were he was born; the stain was from his sister who coughed a tiny amount of blood before she died.

Nex didn't bother with pouncing, she simply charged him, slamming one paw across his face and the other on one of his legs she sent him to the ground with ease. She'd done this many times, with different methods but always with the same result. At this point – when her opponent was knocked down – she liked to toy with them, to take her time and make them bleed, make them suffer and beg for the cold and merciful embrace of death. It was a game to her, first to see how much till they started to scream, then how much more from there till they begged for their lives, and then for the end of said lives.

Cael hadn't seen the point of the stain at first, till his mother showed him why they'd never cleaned the painful reminder. Sure it was faint and a little musty, but that little morsel of dried blood carried her scent. Now that scent filled his nasal, coming from the wolf that was tearing into his left flank. Cael just watched her like a curious pup, with large innocent eyes and turning his head slightly in wonder. He watched her bite down on his flesh, the blood flow around her teeth as she pulled back and shook her head to rip the wound open wide.

"Stop!" Moon cried out, not 15 feet from them

Nex growled at the intrusion, dropping Cael like a bag of rocks she turned to Moon. Nex remembered her, she was one of the first wolves to be 'punished' by the judges, she was also the only one Nex had felt sorry for. Nex absent-mindedly twitched her disfigured tail, a reminder never to feel sorry for anyone.

"Foolish little rotter, I'll tear you to pieces and make a nest from your pelt!"

Again Nex charged, this time diving low to slide past Moon and grab one of her legs. Nex shot upright flipping Moon without releasing her leg, she slammed one of her paws onto the fallen wolf's head. Nex lifted Moon rather awkwardly with the leg she still head firmly in her mouth, she ran straight to the forest edge, crushing the would be rescuer into the trunk of a tree, letting her fall there Nex turned towards Cael. She wanted Moon to have to watch, witness his death.

"Cael! Cael get up dammit! Run! Get the hell out of here!" Moon shouted in vain, Nex had bitten so hard she'd broken her leg, and the tree had served to dislocate the other front shoulder.

Cael did not run, he laid there, staring in disbelief as she sauntered up to him, gave him a malice filled smile, before she dove her head down to his neck, biting into the exposed flesh. Placing one paw on his chest, she pulled back with her jaws still locked around his throat, tearing it open wide.

Cael gasped and gurgled his own blood, he spoke a single word, a name "B-Bandit?" Then, just like that he died, in a pool of his own blood, at the hands of his lost sister.

Author's Note: Hope you liked it, going to try and write the next chapter in a bit, but after that it may be awhile before another update again as I'm re-flooring my bedroom and that could take awhile, sorry.


	24. Chapter 24 And So I Shall Remain

-A/N Sorry this took longer then I thought, had a bit of a black mold problem to deal with (half the walls in my laundry room are now gone along with my washer and dryer) and to address the people who PMed me asking if that was really the end of this story, when I post the last chapter I'll be sure to change this story's progress to 'complete' so you'll know for sure, and even I thought that last chapter would have been a pitiful way to end a story so sorry for the confusion.

Oh and a side note this is were it starts to get a little weird, I also used the song "_I will not bow"_ by "**Breaking Benjamin**" in this chapter, hope you enjoy.-

Chapter 24 And So I Shall Remain

She couldn't believe it, after everything that had happened, could he really just die that easily? They'd been so close, if Moon had just been a little faster, or perhaps a little stronger she could of saved him. They would have been far away from here, in some clearing laughing like they were pups again at the look on Leo's face when he'd seen Cael. Instead though, Cael lay motionless and lifeless as blood now only trickled from his neck, Nex stood over his body, she was moving such away that suggested laughing but Moon couldn't hear anything at this point, and he was dead. No, no that's not good enough, he didn't come all this way, somehow survive that human and manage to come so close just to up and die.

"Dammit Cael! You bastard, get up! That isn't going to cut it!" Moon's voice cracked as tears streamed down her face, her words seemed to only make Nex laugh harder, but she didn't matter anymore, nothing did except Cael.

(this-is-a-freaking-line)

He opened his eyes with a start, attempting to take in a deep breath but found he couldn't, nor did he need to. Cael lifted his head to tell Moon to run and expecting Bandit to finish what she'd started, but he found neither of them to be present. He shook his head to try and clear his vision, everything seemed to be in an odd shade of blue as if there was an overcast, it took him a moment to realize it wasn't just him. Caelum was quickly distracted from the colors by the fact that he was no longer in pain, in fact he felt great. He easily stood, his previously boney frame was now covered by small but toned muscles as if he'd spent the last few months running rather then being beaten.

"Hello Caelum." The voice of the white wolf startled him from his thoughts.

"w-who are you?" he half growled as he backed into a clumsy defensive stance.

"you need not fear me, I am the great spirit wolf Aniu, I usually don't greet the newly dead but you are a special case.

"so, she did kill me then?" the way he said it suggested that he was more upset that "she" had killed him rather then that he was in fact, dead.

"I'm afraid so Caelum, I'm also afraid I cannot allow you to remain dead."

"Pardon?"

"I need you to return to the realm of the living, your life isn't done yet." The spit wolf spoke slowly as if talking to a child

"No."

"Caelum, we don't have time to waste here, I know all that you have been through, I know all that you have felt, seen, heard and thought, I also know this isn't fair of me, but your life has a purpose that must be fulfilled or the natural balance will be upturned and the land of the living will fall into a war far greater then any land or realm has ever seen." She was practically begging him.

"If you know all that, then you should also know that I don't care. You should also know I've taken note of the fact that you're asking permission suggesting that you cannot do it unless I agree, which I wont. From what I've seen in my short life they all deserve to burn, and I'll start the fire my-" before Cael could finish his sentence the spirit wolf cocked her head, with a great wind came another voice, it seemed distant but was clear at the same time.

"_Wake up damn you!"_

"Moon? No Moon you don't belong here! Leave!" the once calm Cael was now frantic.

"I didn't want to do this Cael, but she isn't here, not yet anyway, she's yelling at you to come back, wont be long now before she gets the same fate as you though." It was the Aniu's turn to appear calm and careless.

"then help her!" Cael pleaded, seeming to have completely switched rolls with her.

"why should I care?" She mocked.

Cael snarled in frustration, slashing out at Aniu in impatience but his claws passed right through her.

"Only you can help her Cael, and only if you return to the living. But know this, if you don't remain there till you have full filled you're purpose, then she will die painfully with the rest of the world."

"fine! Whatever it takes! Just tell me what I have to do."

No sooner had he agreed then Aniu was right in front of him, her eyes glowing a bright yellow as she placed a paw on his chest, she breathed a single word as she pushed him back.

"Live." then he was falling.

(Line)

"Do you hear me Cael? Wake the fuck up!"

_**Fall!**_

Nex finally turned to the crying she-wolf, about to tell her how pitifully useless it was to worry about him when she herself was about to meet the same fate, but she never even spoke a word; instead she whipped her head back towards the fallen Caelum, eyes wide in shock. The snow around his body began to melt and immediately turn to steam, but it didn't rise up as it normally would, no it swelled and whirled around the body till it could no longer be seen. It shifted, moving up as if it picked him up and stood him on his feet, just as suddenly as it appeared the steam began to blow away at an abnormal rate; as the the air cleared it reveled the fallen wolf standing before them both hackles raised, teeth showing and ready for a fight.

_**Now the dark begins to rise  
Save your breath, it's far from over  
**_

as the steam cleared some lingered for moments longer on his many wounds, but as it did leave it seemed it evaporated the cuts and scrapes with it. Gone was the scrawny, fearful and half-dead mutt, in his place was a wolf of toned muscle, covered in scars like from his many trials, he was a true alpha. Above all else though, he was full of rage, for his parents and pack mates who he'd lost, for the torture he'd endured, but all that seemed of little valued compared to someone, anyone being a threat to Moon.

_**Leave the lost and dead behind  
Now's your chance to run for cover  
**_

"Oh? Rising from the grave in a cloud of smoke to save the day? Once, twice doesn't make a difference to me, hell I'll kill ya three times just for fun, cause the 'hero' only saves the day in stories mutt." Nex snarled hoping her leg shaking wasn't noticeable.

"Fuck you and you're world." Despite his rage he seemed almost calm, he even seemed calm as he dashed forward, jumped to her right side and knocked her sideways.

_**I don't want to change the world  
I just wanna leave it colder**_

"I'm here for those I care about and nothing more, everyone else can burn in hell for all I care, but starting with _you_" he dug his claws into her shoulder as he spoke.

_**Light the fuse and burn it up  
Take the path that leads to nowhere  
**_

With a snarl Nex whipped about, throwing him off balance. She quickly leapt to her feet and pushed him onto his as she once more went for his neck.

"_To easy" _she thought to herself.

_**All is lost again**_

Cael rolled away from her, bringing himself about and pushing off with his hind legs he charged right back at her as she bit into the snow were his neck had been.

_**But I'm not giving in  
**_

Nex pulled her head up from the snow and reared up to meet him, just as he brought his front right paw across her face, quickly followed by his left to her midsection; he sank his teeth into her shoulder and slammed her to the ground.

_**I will not bow  
I will not break  
I will shut the world away**_

His left paw slammed across her face, his claws tore the flesh apart, his right crashed down on her chest, bones cracking under the force of the blow, he placed his right paw on her throat, pushing down with his claws digging, he was choking the life out of her.

_**I will not fall  
I will not fade  
I will take your breath away  
**_

Nex coughed and gasped, trying in vain to push him off. She attempted to struggle harder as her vision began to darken around the edges, as she began to get weaker Cael only pushed harder.

_**Fall  
**_

As she struggled to breath Nex rose her gaze to look Cael in the face, to her surprise he was crying, his face was twisted in a look of rage and anguish. He was torn once more, by the same question he'd wondered not to long ago when he was about to kill that black and white dog, is this right or wrong? Should he be doing this? Is there another way?

_**Watch the end through dying eyes  
Now the dark is taking over  
Show me where forever dies  
Take the fall and run to Heaven  
**_

"aw, poor little psycho mutt, crying and killing at the same time." A new voice growled from deeper in the woods.

A good sized red wolf covered in scars strode out as if he was just going for a walk in the woods. He stopped for a second and made as if he was going to sit down, but it was a ploy as he instead ran at Cael and slammed into his side, knocking him half way down the hillside.

_**All is lost again  
**_

He recovered quickly, running right back at the new comer, all questions of right and wrong gone with this one, he was a stranger and he'd just attacked him, therefor by the laws of wolves he was fair game.

_**But I'm not giving in  
**_

Cael's left claw flew out to meet the red one's shoulder, he wasted no time in retaliating with a claw to Cael's face. Cael ignored the new flare of pain and bit into his leg, twisting onto his side he brought the red wolf down with him.

_**I will not bow  
I will not break  
I will shut the world away**_

Nex jumped onto Cael and raked her claws across his chest, howling in pain he kicked her off just as the red wolf got to his feet, bit into Cael's shoulder and threw him like he weighed nothing at all. Cael landed hard on his head, giving him double vision as the attacker carelessly walked towards him.

_**I will not fall  
I will not fade  
I will take your breath away  
**_

Cael staggered to his feet, blood flowing freely across his face from were his head hit the ground. The red wolf swiped at his head and Cael narrowly dodged it, snapping out with his own claws he caught his opponent off guard as Cael's claws tore through his face and into his left eye. The red wolf stumbled backwards, losing his balance he rolled down to the base of the hill were he lay pressing one paw over his torn eye cursing and swearing that he'd kill Cael.

_**And I'll survive, paranoid  
I have lost the will to change**_

Caelum assumed the battle was over turned to check on Moon, only to be jumped once again by Nex. He tried to rear up and meet her assault head on but it proved to be a mistake as the force of her body hitting him slammed him against the tree behind him and allowed her to pin him that way. Once more she tried to clamp her jaws onto his throat, Cael managed to jerk his body to the side in time to save his neck but Nex still bit into his shoulder, she jerked her head back and forth to rip the wound open wider. Cael could only close his eyes and scream in pain.

_**And I am not proud, cold-blooded fake  
I will shut the world away  
**_

Cael felt himself being suddenly dropped followed by several wet thumping sounds. Opening his eyes he found Moon had came from behind, Grabbed Nex by the back of her neck and was slamming her head into the tree and splattering the three of them in blood.

_**Open your eyes!**_

The red wolf appeared behind Moon with a bloody hole were an eye used to be and the other full of murderous intent, Cael slid like a snake under Moon and Nex to pop up between them. The one eyed wolf raised his right claw to strike, but Cael was faster and grabbed the limb in his teeth first, quickly twisting one way then the other to snap the bone. Cael then brought his right claw crashing into his foe's jaw, breaking bones in both Cael's paw and his face, he quickly followed with his left paw slamming into the side of his neck and pinning him to the ground._****_

I will not bow  
I will not break  
I will shut the world away

Cael's left paw was lifted from the neck only to assault the ribs, breaking them under the force of the blow, he stomped on his fallen foes face, slamming the teeth on his left side inward. Finally he used his right claws to tear into the adversary's throat, shredding the flesh and letting both blood and air flow freely.

_**I will not fall  
I will not fade  
I will take your breath away  
**_

The nameless wolf grasped and his life essence bubbled and gargled around his throat as if flooded his lungs with his own bodily fluids, effectively drowning him in his own blood. As he slowly died he managed to lift his head and turn his good eye to glare at Cael.

"i-I'll, s-see you-r par-ents in h-hell." the dying wolf attempted for one final taunt.

_**And I'll survive; paranoid  
I have lost the will to change**_

Cael said not a word, he merely hardened his gaze as his claws slashed this wolf's face for the last time, taking his other eye.

"You shall never see anything again you worthless waste of flesh." Cael growled as he turned and limped away.

_**And I am not proud, cold-blooded fake  
I will shut the world away  
**_

The dying wolf attempted to howl in pain, though it only put him in more pain with his torn throat, which made him want to scream more and more in an endless cycle of agony till he died.

_**Fall! **_

Moon met Cael half way, pushing her head under his to lift his face up a little.

"Cael, we have to run OK? It's not safe here more will come." she sounded urgent so Cael just nodded his head and motioned for her to lead the way.

They both gradually picked up speed, moving at a fast job at best. The adrenalin still pumping in both of them stopped them from feeling the pain for awhile as they moved further and further from the bloody site of the battle and the human settlement. After they'd moved almost a mile away they pain set in rapidly, they tried to ignore it till they found a cave. Once inside Cael stumbled and fell on his back, pulling Moon down on top of him, whether it was an accident or not is still uncertain.

Despite all that had taken place they laughed, they laughed as if they hadn't just left two wolves dying in the snow, as if they hadn't both almost been killed, as if one of them hadn't just died then come back in the most unusual fashion. Cael carefully rolled over, gently placing them on their sides.

"Cael, I'm so happy you came back." moon managed as tears welled in her eyes.

"I only came back for you." Cael said truthfully as he used his muzzle to wipe her tears away.

They stayed like that, embraced and entangled in their limps, as they fell into a slumber for the night, both of them dreamed of happier times, of the last time they were together, and of how they were separated.

-A/N so a lot happened in between when I started writing this chapter and till I finished, I wont bore you with the details but just wanted to say sorry again for update time, I'll probably only get maybe 1 chapter in a month, 2 if I'm lucky. Anyway hope you liked it.


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